Let the Game Begin: Book 1
by gredandforgerock
Summary: This is the first of several books that follow Harry's progress in the GAME. What is the GAME? Most think its just a game; a way to sharpen their minds. But a few, a select few, play it as it was meant to be, a way of life. Few utilize the tools. Few take it very seriously. Few will actually win. - no pairings as of yet.
1. Chapter 1

James Sirius Potter picked up the book and wondered at the size of it. Certainly it hadn't been this thick when he bought it. He carefully opened the book and leafed back to the last page he had read a day or so ago. He grinned when he realized what had happened. He had achieved his first goal and it had opened up another section. He read through the greeting but when he turned the page he froze for a full minute before he read past the name.

_**Harry James Potter**_

_**Harry began the game July 31**__**st**__** 1991 on his eleventh birthday. He successfully purchased the book though he didn't realize he had moved into the section marked 'Restricted to 17 and Older'. He is currently one of two players who achieve this books first goal of paying for the book without letting anyone know.**_

_**Currently he is still in the game with 697,542 goals set and achieved and 25,271 failed. He currently holds the record for the most goals achieved and has the best succeed to loss ratio ever held by a long standing player. Harry has held many other distinctions during his play. Those include but are not limited to being the youngest to ever start the game, the oldest player to ever still be in the game at the age of 168 and of course holding the distinction for the longest play.**_

_**Harry set his main goal in the game to be fair and equal treatment for all regardless of species. This high end goal is the most morally correct main goal from any player at any time. He hasn't achieved it worldwide, and probably never will, but he has the laws in place to achieve it. Other than the other owners of the books no one is aware that Harry Potter is running things. If he were to quit today he would win The Game. He understands the purpose of The Game and uses it to help others rather than himself. **_

_**The last time he opened his book was on August 1**__**st**__** 2148. He still picks up his book several times a week. Harry feels his greatest accomplishment is not any of the many laws to benefit magickind, nor is it any new contributions that he helped create to aid us. His greatest accomplishment is his family. His second greatest accomplishment is making a world where they can be happy and safe.**_

James stared in awe at the book he had purchased not more than a few days ago. He had been sure he wouldn't be anywhere close to the youngest to ever try to play this game. In fact at 148 he had only got it to keep his mind busy. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought he would find this. He snapped the book shut and slowly stood and left the room.

"Mary I'm going to visit with my father for a little while." He said as he passed the kitchen.

"Grab that box of biscuits off the table and take it with you. They're his favorites. Tell him I said hello would you." She replied as she fed her youngest great grandchild.

"Ok. Are there any left for me?" he asked eyeing the box.

"We made a double batch." She grinned, "Its Catalena's first try."

"Something special then." He picked up the box and left the kitchen to pop away. Arriving at his parent's home he knocked on the door as he pushed it open, "Anyone home?"

"In my study son." Harry's voice still sounded strong to his oldest son.

James put the box on the kitchen table then made his way up and sat in the chair opposite his father. He looked around the office of the man who had more power magically, and now he knew politically too, than anyone else in the world. The room didn't look like the center of the world, he thought idly. His father closed a book and put it on his desk, it was one that James recognized; he had one just like it in his pocket.

"Welcome." Harry looked at him with a blank face.

"Welcome?" James asked.

"To the game." Harry grinned, "Do you hate me?"

"NO!" James stressed emphatically, "Just surprised, you don't look the part."

"What are your thoughts?" he asked.

"I think… you've had a very interesting life." He scratched his chin.

"You know that's a bit of an understatement." Harry grinned.

"How did you get the book at eleven? Or did they not have it in a warded section back then?" James asked.

"Oh, it was warded all right." Harry grinned, "But you know what my first decade of life was like. Is it that surprising that a ward would agree that I was more than mature enough?"

"Not when you put it that way." James agreed, "You know this puts a whole different perspective on your Hogwarts and ministry years."

"You know I never used this to get myself ahead." Harry made sure he understood.

"I know." James smiled, "I meant how hard you worked to gain respect outside of your defeat of Voldemort and all the other stuff you did. You never took advantage of that fame for yourself. You only ever used it to help charities and stuff like that. The respect you earned from not using it is what fueled the ability to make the changes you did."

"Exactly." Harry smiled softly, "I'm glad you understand. I'd be very upset if anyone thought I was manipulating people for my own gain."

"You don't really even manipulate people." James waved him off, "Everyone has so much respect for you they just hate to disappoint you."

"You know when I started I was reading the stats at the back and found that Albus Dumbledore and Tom Riddle were both in the game. Both tried to manipulate me to do what they wanted." Harry began, "At one point I watched their achievement counts with an almost desperate eye. Every time one of them received an achievement I was afraid it would lead to something bad for me. For a while I couldn't go more than a few hours without checking the book. When I realized I was so obsessed with it I put it down for a month and refused to pick it up. When I looked again they had each earned ten new goals but nothing had happened to me. I was able then to use it in a practical manner again. I tell you that as a warning."

"I understand." James grinned and they sat in silence for a moment, "You know I'm rather surprised Aunt Hermione never figured you out."

"It was Draco that I was surprised didn't catch me." Harry chuckled, "Hermione was a muggleborn so she wouldn't have known about the book. Draco knew the game existed but didn't know I was in on it. He had even looked for a book for more than a decade. He never knew his father had one and only read the original part."

"I'm rather laughing at myself right now. Not only had I heard of The Game but I've seen this book in the store for the last five decades and didn't want to bother with it because it was just a game." James grinned, "I never thought it was… useful."

"I cringe every time a young one gets the book." Harry grimaced, "I keep wondering what I'm doing wrong that someone wants to rule the world."

"They just want to rule it themselves." James grinned, "I'm still trying to get my mind around you."

"I find it amazing that people still want to know what I think." Harry chuckled, "I would have thought they would move on to something younger and cooler."

"Dad, you stopped that guy last year in France." James pointed out, "As long as you're still defeating dark wizards they'll still seek out your advice."

"James, I'm getting tired." Harry looked at his son.

"You want me to leave so you can nap?" he asked.

"No, I mean I'm slowing down. If my reputation hadn't preceded me I would have lost in France." Harry explained, "I'm out of the fighting business."

"Good." He stated emphatically, "I'm glad you've finally seen sense. You aren't going to announce it, are you?"

"No. But they'll figure it out when I don't show up. Warn your brother will you." He said, "Crime may try to pick up."

"I'm having dinner with him and the Head of the DMLE tonight." James agreed with a grin thinking of his nephew following in Harry's footsteps as the head of that department, "We should have a decade or two to get a few more aurors trained up for the expected increase."

"You may not have that long." Harry sighed, "I'm 168, all my friends have already passed and your mother passed far too long ago. I may be willing myself to go but I think I won't be here for 175. When I die…"

"Dark wizards will be coming out of the woodwork." He agreed. The two sat in somber silence for a few minutes, "Well I better go get ready for my dinner. Mary and Catalena baked cookies today and I sat your box on the table."

"James, congratulations on getting the book the right way." He grinned, "I've been alone in that spot for a very long time. Most people either steal or inherit it."

"What do you want to do with your book?" James turned when he reached the door.

"Hmmm, don't know." He replied, "I haven't thought about it. I'll leave you some instructions I'm sure."

_******* years later *******_

On Harry's 180th birthday James picked up the book and handed it to his two siblings, "Dad wanted the two of you to read this. I've known about it for more than a decade and he wanted you to know too. After you read it we are to burn it."

"James, what are you talking about?" Lily picked up the rather thick book.

"Just read the marked page then I'll explain." He insisted.

She opened to the marked page and began to read with her brother Alistar reading over her shoulder.

_**Harry James Potter**_

_**Harry began the game July 31**__**st**__** 1991 on his eleventh birthday. He successfully purchased the book though he didn't realize he had moved into the section marked 'Restricted to 17 and Older'. He was one of the few players who achieve this book's first goal of paying for the book without letting anyone know.**_

_**He ended his game with 749,221 goals set and achieved and 25,383 failed. He holds the record for the most goals achieved and has the best succeed to loss ratio ever held by a long standing player. Harry held many other distinctions during his play. Those include but are not limited to being the youngest to ever start the game, the oldest to ever play the game at the age of 179 and of course he holds the distinction for the longest play. He has the record for the most people helped and he has the record for the number of times he saved the world.**_

_**Other than the other owners of the books no one was aware that Harry Potter was running the world. He understood the purpose of the game and used it to help others rather than himself. His main goal was fair and equal treatment for all, regardless of species. He came very close.**_

_**The last time he opened his book was on June 22**__**nd**__** 2160. Harry felt his greatest accomplishment was not any of the many laws to benefit magickind, nor was it any of the new contributions that he aided in creating, amazingly it wasn't even the number of times he saved the world. His greatest accomplishment to him was his family. His second greatest accomplishment is making a world where they could be happy and safe.**_

_**Harry died on June 22**__**nd**__**, 2160. He is only the third person in history to win the game. His influence will be sorely missed as will the wisdom he used to wield it. **_

_**This book will no longer be part of play. When a winner ends his game his book is frozen in that state and cannot be passed on.**_

"What is this?" Al asked.

"It's a game whose main goal was to rule the world." James grinned, "Our Dad won."

"How did you know already?" Lily asked then answered herself, "You're playing the game."

"Yes but I'm only doing it to keep my mind sharp." He answered, "I'll never win the game. But that's ok because I don't take it seriously. This isn't a bad thing."

"I know." Al smiled as Lily flipped through the book, "What are all these blank pages?"

"Those are the players who are playing right now." James grinned, "You can't see them?"

"All I see are blank pages." Lily flipped through, "At the front it has the introduction then Dad's after that is blank pages."

"Interesting." James grinned, "I can read it all. I guess it's because you aren't in the game."

"Maybe we don't need to burn it then." Lily asked hopefully.

"No he wants it burned." James sighed, "He doesn't want any more Potterfacts loose on the world."

"Ug I hate that name." Al growled, "Is it too hard to say Harry Potter artifacts?"

"Evidentially." James and Lily laughed at their brother.

"By the way I'm fighting the push to declare today Harry Potter day." Al smiled, "The only thing keeping them off is that his will says not to and I'm the Minister."

"You know." Lily grinned, "I think I would give quite a lot to know Dad when he was a child. How many eleven year olds could play a game like this without any selfish desires? I can't think of many adults that could do it."

"Lil's did Dad ever tell you about his childhood?" Al looked over at his brother hoping she knew.

"Of course." She was looking over Harry's page again.

"More than what was in the history books?" he asked.

"I know the Dursleys weren't nice." She shrugged, "But he was so nonchalant about it I'm sure it wasn't really bad."

"Lil's." James sighed, "His childhood resembled a house elf's life closer than it did anything else. He had more broken bones in those first ten years than what I've had my whole life. It was really bad. He just down played it, a lot."

"Why would he do that?" she asked in shock.

"We are talking about our father." Al grinned, "You remember him? The Understatement King of the world. He helped a little to rid the world of Voldemort. He held a minor position in the ministry. He was headmaster for a few years. You remember the man I'm speaking of?"

"Oh shut up." Lily shook her head, "You're right though he always did have a knack for that."

A widely grinning James lifted the book and said, "The understatement ruler of the world."

"Still I wish I could have seen him." She turned from her brothers and headed from the room.


	2. Chapter 2

***back to the beginning***

Harry Potter was enthralled. Never had he seen so many books, I mean interesting books, all in one place. They were far more interesting than books from the library where he had spent so much time; it was one of his favorite hiding places from Dudley and his gang. But these books were far more interesting because they were magical books and this was his first time in a magical book store.

Hagrid was going to leave him at the robe shop but the line put him off. Instead he sent Harry to look at books while he went to the Leaky Cauldron to settle his stomach after the cart ride at Gringotts. So here he was alone in a book store with a pocket full of money and time to look. He perused through each section reading titles and occasionally picking up a book and leafing through it. He was so intrigued and enraptured that he never noticed the sign over the section he had just entered. The sign read, RESTRICTED, 17 and OLDER.

As he looked over the books in that section one in particular caught his attention. He thought it looked like a fun read so he pulled the book off the shelf. The name of the book was The Game: A Moment to Learn; A Lifetime to Master. He opened the book to read the first couple of paragraphs to see if it was worth buying.

_**Welcome to The Game. Many have likened this game to chess. Just so you know… chess is easier.**_

_**Have you ever felt you were destined for greatness, but didn't want to be out in front? You don't want the admiration of the crowd, you just want to be yourself but you want or need to affect the world in some way. Then this is the game for you. The goal is to rule the world, the wizarding world. There is one rule: don't let anyone know you are really the one running everything. The person who wins will rule the world with the least number of people knowing about it.**_

_**You won't find many who will join this game with the right spirit. Most want to be famous, out in front, seen and loved by the masses. The whole point in this game is to be the unknown force behind a society that functions how you feel a society should. You may be famous for other things but you don't want anyone to know you are directing the current that drives society's path.**_

_**How to play: Set a goal, achieve it and don't let anyone know it was a goal or that it was achieved by you.**_

_**To see if you are worthy of the game and to achieve your first goal you must buy this book from this store without letting anyone in the store, including the owner, know you have bought it. The current price for this book is 2 Galleons (this price is self-updating).**_

Harry jumped when someone walked past the end of the aisle. He quickly shoved the book under his overly large shirt and moved on to the transfiguration section. Knowing he had a book under his shirt that he was attempting to, well not steal but to take and pay for without them knowing, made him jumpy. Therefore when the shop clerk asked if he needed help he jumped nearly a foot in the air.

"Sorry for startling you." The girl snickered, "I didn't realize you were so intent on that book. Do you need help?"

Harry glanced at the book in his hands then glanced up, "Sorry it's just my first time here and everything is so interesting. But I guess I need to concentrate on my first year books. I have a list." He started to dig in his pockets looking for it.

"That's ok, I have the first year list memorized." She smiled at him, "In fact I have a few prepackaged sets behind the counter. It costs a few galleons extra but the bag is charmed to be feather light so you aren't weighted down during the rest of your shopping."

"Excellent." Harry agreed and followed the woman through the store. He tried not to think of the extra book under his shirt as she set his purchases on the counter. He counted out the galleons and left three extra for the book and for a tip, "Keep the extra for your help."

"Thank you." Her smile widened, "Have a good day."

"You too." He replied, "How long will this charm last?" he lifted the very light bag.

"A few years, you should be able to reapply it by the time it wears off." She waved as he thanked her again and left the store slipping the hidden book into the bag then he went to find Hagrid.

He didn't think of the book again until the two of them were back at the Leaky Cauldron waiting for their dinner. He almost lost his appetite when he thought of returning to the Dursleys. He realized he had his own first goal in mind.

"Hagrid, do I have to go back to my Aunt's house?" he asked, "Can I just stay here with you?"

"I have to go back to Hogwarts and give Dumbledore his stuff." He tried to explain but the pleading look on Harry's face made it very difficult.

"But what if they aren't home?" he asked with a shudder, "Or worse they are home. I don't think I'd like to face them tonight after we left them abandoned on that island. I'm sure they'll punish me for that. You did that thing to Dudley, I'm sure they'll blame me for that too."

"They wouldn't." Hagrid was wide eyed.

"They always do." Harry sighed, "Anytime something doesn't go like they think it should they blame me. Anything odd that happens is my fault. It doesn't matter if they saw someone else do it, it is still my fault."

"I tell you what." Hagrid was wringing his hands, "If you promise to stay in your room I will get you one for overnight. I'll tell Dumbledore how they have been treating you. He'll decide what happens next, fair enough?"

"Ok." Harry agreed tremulously. Not having to return right away was certainly a relief.

As soon as he was ensconced in a room with the owl Hagrid had bought him he pulled out the book. It was a rather small book so he was able to read the entire thing rather quickly. In beyond what he had already read were hints on how to play and suggestions for other books to help him play the game. There was a section for each type of player so different books were suggested depending on the section. He made a list of all the other books he was going to need. He felt like he was doing ok so far, he just hoped he wouldn't have to talk too much about life at his relative's house. He slipped the book back into his bag when someone knocked at the door.

Hagrid entered and smiled, "Dumbledore wasn't at the school. Instead I've brought Madam Pomfrey she is the school healer and wants to give you a checkup. Most muggleborns do this at school so you're just getting a head start."

"Ok." Harry agreed hoping that they would find something to keep him from having to go back, "When?"

"She'll be here in a few." Hagrid was still by the door, "I won't be able to stay with you."

"Can you do a favor for me then?" he waited until the giant of a man nodded, "I have a list of other books one of my new books suggested for side reading. Could you pick them up for me? I'll give you the galleons for them."

Taking the list and money from the boy he agreed before opening the door when someone knocked. He introduced the two of them and left, leaving Harry in the hands of the healer. Harry nervously glanced at the woman as she sat a bag on the table in the room and then smiled over at him.

"Hello Mr. Potter, I'm Madam Pomfrey. I hope you've had a pleasant day?" she said in a soft voice.

"Yes it was." He replied before nervously asking, "What happens now?"

"First of all I need you go to the bathroom and undress and then put this gown on with the opening in the back." She handed him a small cloth, "This will keep your clothes from giving any false readings."

Harry complied with a deep breath and when he returned he stood in the middle of the room with both hands behind his back clutching the gown to keep it closed. The healer looked up when he coughed and waved him over to the bed she was preparing. He sat on it and she held her wand out.

"I'm going to perform some diagnostic charms on you so don't be afraid." She waited for him to nod and then began to wave her wand over him, muttering as she went, "Under sized and weight, broken arms… fractured wrists… ribs and ankles." She continued to murmur and Harry picked up a word now and then, "Concussion… five different..."

After a few minutes she tapped a paper and writing appeared. Harry pointed at the paper and asked, "What's that?"

"Recording parchment." She replied, "It records all the diagnostic spells I'm doing and their readings. How did you break your arm?"

"Which time?" he asked honestly.

"All of them, in order that they happened." She continued her diagnostics.

"First time Dudley pushed me off the swing at school. That time the school took me to the doctor. Second time he hit me with a cricket bat. And the third happened when I fell out of a tree while I was trying to get away from Ripper." He sat in thought.

"Who are Dudley and Ripper?" she asked.

"Dudley is my cousin; I live with him and his parents." Harry explained, "Ripper is my uncle's sister's dog. She sent it to bite me and I climbed a tree to get away."

"Are you sure she sent it to bite you?" she looked at him in the eye, "Did you do anything to it?"

"I opened the door to let her and the dog in. As soon as she was past the doorway she pointed at me and told the dog to bite the stupid, good for nothing orphan boy." Harry stated truthfully, "She is always telling my uncle to drop me off at an orphanage where I wouldn't be a bother to good hardworking people."

"How does you uncle reply to that?" she hoped he was being protected.

"He says I'm just a burden that they have to bare because my drunkard parents went and got themselves killed in a car crash." Harry hated talking about his life at home, "Hagrid told me that was a lie because they were murdered."

Harry leaned back on the bed hoping the questions were ready to end. He seemed to be reliving each memory as he spoke about it. A noisy group of people stomped past his door making the woman flinch slightly. She looked around a moment before hearing Hagrid greet someone in the hall.

"Go get dressed and I'll be right back." She instructed as she headed towards the door.

Harry wasted no time at all jumping off the bed and running for the bathroom and his clothes. He carried the other gown back to the room and sat on the bed to wait. Hagrid returned a few moments later.

"Gather your things." He handed over the stack of new books.

"She isn't sending me back to the Dursleys is she?" Harry hesitated moving off the bed but took the books.

"No, not sure where she wants to take you but I know it isn't there." Hagrid helped him put his books in his trunk and then hefted it up and the two left the room in search of Poppy Pomfrey.

"Where else could I go?" Harry wondered.

"Hogwarts or St. Mungo's." Hagrid looked down and saw Harry's questioning look, "St. Mungo's is a hospital for magic people. She says you need potions and stuff."

"Excellent you're ready." Pomfrey met them at the foot of the stairs, "I've got us a portkey. We'll be heading to Hogwarts so put a finger on this plate."

Hagrid complied immediately and Harry did with some reluctance, "What's a portkey?"

"Magical travel device, it pops us from here to there in just a few seconds." She finished explaining and a few seconds later he felt himself get jerked forward.

After a few seconds more he found himself dropped, quite painfully, onto his knees on a cold stone floor. Just as he made it back to his feed Hagrid put a hand on his shoulder and drove him back to his knees. Next thing he knew Hagrid was picking him up by the back of his shirt and sat him on his feet.

"Are you alright there Harry?" he asked.

"Fine." Harry reached down and rubbed his knees, "Is this Hogwarts?"

He knew she had said Hogwarts but the room was filled with beds and he assumed he was in the hospital or a hospital portion of the school. Hagrid confirmed they were at the school then had to leave to finish his project and inform the Headmaster of his arrival. Pomfrey returned as he was leaving and set out another gown and told Harry to change into it. He groaned but did as requested. The first thing she did on his return was fix the scuffed knees from the fall after the portkey. This time his checkup was longer, she asked more questions and poked and prodded more. This continued until an old man entered followed by a younger but still old woman. The old man caught and held his attention for a moment. He was sure he'd seen a picture of the man in a book about Merlin. The long hair and beard with the pointed hat certainly made an interesting sight. He then turned to the old woman. She reminded him of his primary school headmistress, tight bun, grim mouth and stern expression, not a woman to be trifled with.

"What's the prognosis Poppy?" The twin of Merlin asked.

"Underweight from severe malnutrition." She began.

"Picky eater?" the man interrupted.

"No I eat anything they allow me to." Harry answered the question thinking it was aimed at him.

The man grimaced at his wording but Poppy continued, "No child starves themselves long term. He is undersized because he wasn't given enough food to grow on. I'm seeing years of near starvation."

"Uncle Vernon says my freakishness can just feed me." Harry hated talking about this but if it got him away he would repeat his uncle's vile words, so with a bowed head he whispered, "I don't deserve the same as regular people."

"What?" the old woman spoke for the first time.

"I'm a freak and freaks don't deserve…" Harry didn't get to finish his sentence before the woman grabbed the man's arm and pulled him away. Her words sounded like the hissing of a mad cat and he couldn't understand what was said.

His attention was brought back to the healer when she asked slightly loud, "How did you hurt your ribs?"

"They aren't really hurt, just bruised." Harry stated, "I fell on a rock when I slipped on the island Uncle Vernon was hiding us on."

"How do you know it's only a bruise?" she asked.

"Two years ago I was pu… I mean I fell down the stairs and broke two of them." He grimaced at the remembered pain, "They've been bruised a lot but I know the difference."

"Who helped you fall down the stairs?" she asked having caught his slip.

Harry sighed deeply he wasn't going to get out of talking about anything, "Dudley pushed me after Uncle Vernon told him to."

"Did that happen often?" the other woman asked. Harry hadn't realized they were listening again.

"What?"

"Your uncle telling Dudley to hurt you?" she looked at him sternly.

"It works out better for them to have Dudley dole out my punishments." Harry shrugged, "When I had to go to the hospital for the broken arm from Dudley's cricket bat he told the doctor we were just playing and being young Dudley forgot how much bigger and stronger he is than me."

"What were you being punished for?" the old man asked.

"The cricket bat was for getting a better grade on the science test than Dudley got." He answered, "Usually I have no problem answering enough wrong that I do worse but he didn't get a single question right."

"Just for getting a better grade you get punished?" Poppy looked disgusted.

"Not just grades." Harry hadn't really understood what she had asked, "Most of the time is because my freakishness."

"What do you mean freakishness?" the old woman asked.

"Weird or bad things happen around me." Harry explained, "It's my fault so I get punished."

"What kind of things?" Pomfrey pushed.

"Some truly weird things like my teacher's hair turned blue and jumping but landing much farther than I had thought I would. Some stuff I think is just regular things like better grades, flat tires, lost business deals and games. I always get punished for it regardless of why it happened." Harry sighed. He really wanted the questions to end but the book told him to be convincing but to try not to lie or exaggerate. To reach the goal he needed to be as truthful as possible. The truth is convincing.

"At least part of that is accidental magic." Poppy patted his shoulder, "Not freakishness. The rest is everyday happenings that you should not be blamed for unless you purposefully did something."

"I'm going to speak to his uncle." The old man turned to leave.

"Great." Harry said sarcastically, "Because that has worked so well in the past. As soon as the adult leaves me in their tender care I get punished for telling lies about his perfect family. Why do I even have to live there? Is there no one else who cares and would take me? I don't take up much space. I'll sleep in any one else's cupboard. Just don't send me back."

"Cupboard?" both women asked.

"Harry, the man that killed your parents and his followers would kill you if they found you." The old man tried to explain, "I have protections on that house that keep them away from you."

"They may save me from the monsters on the outside but what saves me from the monsters inside?" Harry glared at the old man, "While you're there take a look at my bedroom. It's the only one on the first floor. You'll find it under the stairs."

Harry didn't see the man's look when he turned his back to him and lay down. He also didn't see the woman grab the man's arm again and pull him towards the door. He did hear the anger in her voice when she spoke, "Come on Albus, I want to see just what has been happening. I told you…"


	3. Chapter 3

Harry woke sometime later. But not knowing what had woken him he pretended to still be asleep. Finally a sniffing noise not far away caught his attention. He almost flinched when the voices started.

"It was horrible. The only reason Albus believes now was that the whale of a child was protesting giving up his second room for the freak." The older woman from before was speaking.

"He's an old fool who is set in his ways." Poppy sighed, "It takes a catastrophe for him to see an error in judgment. Too many people begging him to be their Minister has gone to his head if you ask me."

"I should never have listened to him." The woman huffed.

"Minerva, we all fall into traps now and then." Poppy comforted, "You fell into the trap that is Albus. He is so convinced of his own rightness that we begin to believe he cannot be wrong too."

"And now this precious little boy has paid the price for us once again." She sniffed.

"And now WE know to watch his every step where Harry is concerned. Albus has lost himself in the big picture and can't see the details until they are forced upon him." Poppy stated.

"You're right." Minerva said as she stood, "I need to start at the beginning and see if he made any other mistakes. I'm going to start with Amelia and see if she can help. With school starting in a few weeks I don't want this dropped because I can't investigate like I want."

"Good luck." Poppy said as he heard a whooshing sound.

His stomach took that moment to growl and he pretended to wake up, "Whaatsz goin on?"

Poppy leaned over him, "You're at Hogwarts do you remember?"

"Mmmm." He nodded and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

Poppy helped him to sit up, "Are you hungry?" His stomach growled loudly and she smiled, "I'll take that as a yes. You can use the bathroom if you want. I'll be back in a moment with breakfast."

While he ate his breakfast he started a mental list…

_Minerva – stern teacher type – on my side_

_Poppy Pomfrey – Healer- on my side_

_Albus – old man – questionable_

_This Albus could be Albus Dumbledore the Headmaster. If so Hagrid may be an information source on him but I won't be able to have him as a confidante because he'll tell Albus everything._

_To do: _

_Find out if the two Albus' are one in the same._

_Find out who Minerva is and her connection to me and the school._

_Find out if anyone knows my parents and can tell me about them._

_Find out about the teachers._

_Figure out if I want allies, friends or both._

_Look the book over again make sure I'm doing things right. Don't want to mess up the game this early._

After he finished eating Poppy pulled his trunk close so he could get books to read. He pulled out the potions book as well as the transfiguration one. He also grabbed The Game book. As he pulled it out he looked at it in confusion. He was sure it was thicker than it had been when he bought it. He opened it and leafed through and found a new section had been added at the back. Rather than rereading it as he had planned, he began at the new section.

_Congratulations! You have achieved your first self-set goal. This has unlocked the next section of this book. The following section gives you a list of all living players and their stats. The current part is only for players in your geographical area, meaning Britain in this case. It doesn't cover outside of that, yet. Note of interest, you are not allowed to tell anyone else anything you read beyond this point. Reading constitutes an agreement to abide by this rule. Magic itself will not let you pass on this secret._

_Again congratulations on your achievement._

Harry carefully turned a few pages. Each page contained one player and left plenty of room to be added to. He went back to the front of the section and began to read.

_**Albus Percival Wilbur Brian Dumbledore**_

_**Albus began the game August 15**__**th**__** of 1898 shortly after his seventeenth birthday. He had gone to London's Diagon Alley to gather his books for his next term at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At the book store he entered the restricted section for the first time. He had long wondered what amazing things were held in the section and since he was seventeen he saw no reason to stay out of the seventeen and older section. He is currently one of two players who achieve this books first goal of paying for the book without letting anyone know.**_

_**Currently he is still in the game and has a record 200,475 goals that were set and achieved. He also has the record for goals failed at 75,261. Albus has held many other distinctions during his play. When he started he was the youngest ever to being the Game. He is now the oldest player to ever play the game and is consequently the oldest player currently in the game and of course is the longest to ever play. It took more than sixty years of game play before anyone realized he was running things. Now though most people understand the world is run by him. He holds the titles of Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and the Grand Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards. Very few people don't realize he's controlling almost everything. According to the rules he is losing The Game badly.**_

_**The last time he opened his book on The Game was on August 19**__**th**__**1924. At that time he decided he had the book memorized and he placed it in his family vault where it stays to this day. Albus is also a follower of the Deathly Hallows, see the book Tales of Beetle the Bard. He feels his greatest achievement was gaining the Elder Wand in his defeat of the dark wizard Grindlewald. He believes, as many others do, that the Elder wand is the wand of the Hallows. He is currently also in possession of the cloak he presumes to be part of the story, but it isn't owned by him and he will have to give it up at some point.**_

Harry turned to the next page. Skimming it he saw his own name so he went back to the top and read carefully.

_**Tom Marvolo Riddle**_

_**Tom began the game July 30**__**th**__** 1949 at the age of 22. He was working at Borgan and Burke's in Knockturn Alley, the dark arts section of Diagon Alley in London. He found the book in the store's back room and stole it. He had worked at that store for a few years before he disappeared along with his copy of the book and several expensive items he stole from both the store and its customers.**_

_**Currently he is still in the game and has 155,165 goals that were set and achieved. He also has 54,245 goals that failed. He holds the distinction for being the only player ever to play the game without a physical form. He achieved this distinction when he failed his goal to kill the baby of a prophecy, Harry Potter. Tom began to style himself under a different name when he left Borgan and Burke's, he hated his muggle father's name so he anagrammed it to form a new one. His pseudonym, Voldemort, is widely known to be trying to attain world domination. He has acquired a few other names as the fear of him has increased. Those being You Know Who and He Who Must Not Be Named. If we are going strictly by the rules he is the current lead in the game since very few people know Tom Riddle is after world domination. However if we follow the spirit of the rule then he is failing miserably.**_

_**The last time he opened his book was on July 31**__**st**__** 1949 when he read it front to back and then began his play. He left the book in the hostel he had stayed in that evening. The owners of the hostel put the book in the attic where they kept all items left by travelers in case they ever came back for them. The hostel burned to the ground in 1958 as Tom was covering his tracks before returning to Hogwarts to apply for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, which was denied him by his hated transfiguration professor Albus Dumbledore who had achieved Headmaster during Tom's absence.**_

Harry skimmed several pages of people he didn't know. He would come back and read about them later. The very last entry was rather short.

_**Harry James Potter**_

_**Harry began the game July 31**__**st**__** 1991 on his eleventh birthday. He successfully purchased the book though he didn't realize he had moved into the section marked 'Restricted to 17 and Older'. He is the youngest to ever start the game. **_

_**Currently he is still in the game with 1 goal set and achieved and none failed. He currently holds the distinction of being the only player with a perfect score. And as no one would ever suspect an eleven year old to run the world he is currently in the lead for achieving The Game's main goal.**_

_**The last time he opened his book was on August 1**__**st**__** 1991.**_

Closing the book he made a few mental notes including one to refer to the book often and not to assume he knew it all. He glanced at the clock and decided to set the book aside for now so he placed it back in his trunk. Next he picked up his potions book and began to read the first chapter. He had managed to read several chapters when he began to feel tired so he marked his place and relaxed onto the bed.

Poppy woke him some time later as she placed his lunch on the tray. Harry opened his eyes in time to see a dark haired person leaving the ward. He blinked a few times and sat up ready to eat.

"Who was that?" he asked wondering if he should be concerned.

"That was Professor Snape. He teaches potions." Poppy helped him get comfortable before she turned to leave.

"Can you tell me about the teachers?" he asked. He wanted to achieve the goal he set but more than that he wanted some company.

"Ok." She pulled up a chair, "The two you met yesterday were Minerva McGonagall who is the transfiguration professor and Albus Dumbledore who is the headmaster." She continued going over each class, "Lastly you'll have Defense Against the Dark Arts but I don't know who he has teaching that this year."

"Did the old teacher retire?" he asked.

"Well he quit more than retired." She explained but didn't elaborate any further as she stood, "I need to get your potions ready. You'll be on several for a while."

When she returned Harry, who had realized that two of his questions had been answered tried for another, "Did you or any of the professors know my parents?"

"I did." Her smile was bittersweet, "Minerva, Albus and I were there the day you were born. "

They spent the next several hours talking and Harry got a good idea of his parents from the healer's point of view. He'd have to see if all his professors liked them as much. When he was alone again he checked off the items from his mental list. There was only one Albus, Headmaster and questionable old man. Minerva was mum's mentor and cared for both his parents and she had been their head of house. Poppy had given him quite the list of people who knew his parents and she had informed him about all his teachers. His parents were viewed as good, brave and powerful Gryffindors. He'd have a lot of work to live up to their reputations. He was sure he was going to need friends and allies to make it in this game. Especially seeing as he was competing against both Dumbledore and Riddle, who also wanted him dead most probably.

Harry quickly pulled out his game book and noted that he had two goals achieved now. He glanced over Albus' and Tom's to make sure they didn't have any big changes. He frowned slightly when he saw the number of Albus' achievements go up by one. His own still had two goals achieved so he decided Albus couldn't be sending him back to the Dursleys he must have met some other goal. Harry hoped it didn't mean something bad for him.

The rest of his day was quiet but the next morning he was woken when the door to the hospital was slammed open. He recognized Minerva as she stomped into the room and quickly closed his eyes as Poppy's door opened. The healer met her not far from Harry's bed and tried to calm the professor.

"No trial." She announced, her Scottish brogue becoming heavy in her agitation, "No trial at all they didn't even check his wand."

"What are you talking about?" he heard Poppy trying to pull her away from his bed.

"Sirius Black." Minerva was just too angry to catch on to Poppy's attempts to quiet her, "They all just assumed he was the secret keeper since the Potters had asked him in that meeting. They assumed he killed Peter because they found a finger. There is no proof or even any record in the DMLE that shows they even questioned him."

"But he's a Lord." Poppy gasped, "His father died on October twenty second of that year, they have to have a trial for a Lord."

"They should be giving trials to everyone." Minerva growled, "But never the less I already reminded Amelia of that fact. Can you imagine how many heads will be rolling if he is found innocent. Albus' head is among them."

"Didn't you say Sirius Black was one of my dad's friends?" Harry asked from his bed.

Minerva sent a look of apology at Poppy for forgetting her charge. The look she got back from the healer sent her to Harry's bed side to try and explain what exactly was happening. Later that evening Harry was contemplating his goals and added he needed to find the truth about Sirius Black. On top of that if the man was innocent then find out who the guilty party was and make sure they paid for hurting all of them.

The month of August passed as quickly as it could for an eleven year old boy in the hospital. He didn't get out of the wing very often so his knowledge of the castle itself was very slim. However his knowledge of the inner workings, the teachers and the relationships between them was quite extensive. He'd learned about the new DADA professor and the man didn't sound very impressive. He also learned to stay away from the potions professor; the man didn't seem to like him even before he had opened his mouth.

Now it was September first and he was leaving Hogwarts to catch a train to come back to Hogwarts. Oh the irony. At the same time Sirius Black was facing a veritiserum trial at the Ministry for Magic. Harry kept himself from hoping for one answer or another. Instead he concentrated on his wish to know the truth and have the guilty punished. He had tried to go to the trial instead of riding the train but no one would hear of it. It had been like talking to a brick wall. But he wasn't letting that get in the way of things. He was settled to take this opportunity to meet people and try to make some friends and allies.

Minerva had dropped him off on the platform and helped him with his trunk. He had picked a good spot to see people entering and leaving the portal to the muggle world. There was a steady stream of people entering over the next hour. Many had boarded the train and glanced into his compartment but no one had joined him as of yet. A blond family stopped on the platform not far from his open window. Harry instantly recognized the boy from the robe shop in Diagon Alley. Harry had been reaching for the door when the blonde had shoved his way out. His hand had nearly been smashed.

"Remember what it is to be a Malfoy." The man whispered furiously, "Do not cause a smudge on our name. Get into Slytherin and show those mudbloods who is boss. I expect top marks."

"Yes Father." Was the quiet reply that followed each demand.

"Lucius." A man called from farther away and the blond man turned and nodded with a slight smile.

No wonder the boy was such an idiot. It's hard to be smart with such an idiot for a father. However the name Lucius Malfoy rang a bell and he decided to investigate it. Before he could turn away to go back to his books a pair of red headed twins rocketed through the portal.

"Weasleys." The elder blond sneered and like all good mini-mes the boy copied the sneer. The woman's face still had the look that someone was holding something foul right under her nose.

The twins were followed by another boy who was obviously a first year judging by the wide eyed grin. Next through were a woman and a young girl who was probably only a year or two away from attending Hogwarts herself. You could tell they were together because they all had the same shade of red hair.

Harry pulled the notes he'd been making from his talks with his professors. Weasleys were a noted light family and the Malfoys were listed as neutral. Although very few actually believed their claim of neutral. The ones he talked to were sure Mr. Malfoy had lied when he claimed the imperious curse made him follow his dark Lord.

Harry continued to watch people on the platform. He thought he could identify several other light families. From Minerva's description the Longbottom matron with the vulture on her hat was quite distinguishable. He saw the Bones woman for a few moments as she dropped a young red headed girl off before popping away. Harry felt sorry for the girl but knew her aunt had a busy morning with Sirius' trial scheduled.

It was getting close to eleven when his door open and a bushy haired girl stood in the doorway, "May I sit here?"


	4. Chapter 4

"Sure be my guest." He said, "I'm Harry Potter."

"Oh I've read all about you." She pulled out a book with the title Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts. She continued to babble and point at the book until Harry gently placed a hand over her mouth.

"First your name." he lifted his hand away.

"Sorry. I'm Hermione Granger…" he put his hand back as she tried to start talking again.

"Muggleborn?" he asked.

"Yes." This time she answered the question but didn't try to speak so he didn't put his hand back.

"You love to learn?" it was really more of a statement.

"Yes." She waited a second then said, "I've memorized all my books so I hope I'm ready enough."

"First of all you are probably the only one to do that. It isn't necessary and you may be bored in class if you know it all already." He explained what he knew about the wizarding world and life in general. At least what he got from the book and his talks with the teachers, "Next you need to know that magical laws are different than muggle laws especially when it comes to books."

"What do you mean?" she asked while she blinked in shock.

"Well you know how if the book is listed as fact in the muggle world they have to be provable facts or state that they are opinions." He asked.

"Right." She nodded along.

"The magical world doesn't have that law." He explained, "They can say anything and the only way to know if it's truth or fiction is to find corroborating evidence."

"But… how…" she was dumbfounded.

"I can tell you for a fact that I didn't say anything to the writers of that book." He pointed to the book in her hand, "I was fifteen months old. Could you have said all this says I did at that age?"

"No." her voice was small and she looked at the book with disgust.

"The best way to maneuver in the magical world is to watch and listen first and talk second." He pulled the book from her hands and flipped through it, "Go to the source when you can. Get hands on proof when you can. And if the book contradicts itself it's probably untrue."

"How do you know?" she asked.

"I read it in a book." He smirked, "Then I talked to others to get their opinion and I watched to see how others reacted. If you run around telling everyone how much you know all it will really do is tell them how much you don't know."

Hermione sighed and sat back in her seat as the door opened and two boys stood in the doorway. One he remembered was the Weasley first year he had watched enter the portal. The other he couldn't place though he was sure he saw him on the platform talking to someone.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" the red head boy asked.

"The more the merrier." Harry waved them in.

"Thanks, I'm Ron Weasley by the way." He pulled his trunk in and all three boys struggled to put it in place and then they grabbed the second.

"Neville Longbottom." The boy puffed when they were finished.

Hermione hadn't moved so Harry introduced her, "This fine lady is Hermione Granger and I'm Harry Potter.

"Are you really?" Ron and Neville gasped together.

"Do you have the scar?" Ron asked before Neville could pull himself back together.

Harry grimaced and pulled his hair back, "If you will please let others know you saw it. And tell them for me it's a reminder of my parent's murder and I don't like to talk about it."

"Sure mate." Ron and Neville nodded in agreement and took seats. Neville was in the seat next to Hermione.

"But…" she looked puzzled, "How was what he just asked different?"

"He didn't tell me about myself. He was checking his facts." Harry pointed out.

"Loads of books say he has the scar, but you can't just believe them." Ron added, "My dad says people will print anything."

The devastated look appeared on her face again and Neville awkwardly patted her shoulder. She sniffled and said, "Well I guess that proves it. Do the spells in our books actually work? I've tried a few and they did but…"

"From what I've been able to ascertain these books are mostly correct." Harry offered.

"They're the same books they've been using for twenty years." Neville offered softly.

"What about Hogwarts a History?" Hermione asked, "How truthful is it?"

"I don't know I've not read it." Harry shrugged, "Have you guys?"

"My gran made me read about the four houses." Neville's voice was almost too soft to hear, "So that part is true."

"What house do you want to be in?" Ron asked him.

"Gryffindor." He replied, "That's where my parents were."

"Me too." Ron grinned, "My five older brothers have all made it in there so I hope to make it too. What about you Harry?"

"I don't care, they all sound pleasant enough." Harry shrugged.

"Slytherin doesn't sound pleasant." Ron argued, "Not a witch or wizard gone bad that wasn't from there. They're dark, the whole lot of them. Hufflepuffs are duffers and Ravenclaws are know it alls. Gryffindor is the only good house."

"Brainwashed much?" Harry asked.

"What?" Ron asked in confusion.

"How do you know all that stuff about the houses?" Hermione asked.

"My brothers told me." He stated.

"And your brothers are all good guys?" Harry asked, "What did they tell you about the sorting?"

"Fred said we have to wrestle a troll." Ron held out one hand and then the other, "On the other hand Bill said it wasn't anything too difficult."

"I think maybe just gullible then." Harry shook his head.

"What?" Ron looked confused again. Harry decided it was probably his most usual look.

"Sounds to me like your brothers are taking the mickey." Harry explained, "They want you to look up to them and follow their footsteps so of course they say Gryffindor is best. By the way Hagrid says trolls stand about twelve feet tall and smell like a backed up toilet. I doubt we have to wrestle one because it would kill us with one swipe of its club."

"But snakes are all evil." Ron said forcefully.

"Are you sure or are you a bit sneaky and your brothers want to ensure you don't go there?" Harry asked, "Every house has good and bad in it. You can't place a blanket over the whole house because of a few people."

"They'll have to prove it to me." He huffed.

"So they're guilty until proven innocent." Hermione looked at him with disapproval, "Not a very good attitude to have."

"So if I was to be placed in Slytherin you would assume I'm evil until I do something good?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well no you can't go to Slytherin because you're a good person." Ron was still arguing.

"Do you know Mad Eye Moody?" Harry asked, "He's an auror."

"Dad says he's the best auror the Ministry ever had." Ron got excited, "Hates dark wizards with a passion."

"Right and which house was he in?" Harry asked.

"Gryffindor?" Ron tried.

"Wrong." Harry shook his head, "He was a puff. Still think Puffs are duffers?"

"Ok maybe they were wrong on Hufflepuff." Ron admitted.

"And we're pretty sure they were wrong about the sorting." Hermione pointed out.

"They could be wrong about a lot of things." Harry finished.

"I suppose." Ron said and then sat up with a flinch, "They tease me a lot about stuff. Maybe they've just been teasing me about all this stuff."

"Very possible." Harry agreed, "Let's just all keep our eyes open and see where we go."

"Can we still be friends if we're in different houses?" Neville asked softly.

"Always." Harry nodded, "I want as many friends as I can get. But you three will always be special because you were first."

The three of them nodded at him and it was settled. With only one short interruption in the compartment from Malfoy, it wasn't long before the train stopped and they unloaded and headed for Hagrid and the boats. The ride was lovely and the first sight of the castle was breathtaking. He'd been in the castle for a month but he'd not been allowed outside so this was a new sight even for him. They made their way to front doors after exiting the boats and were met by Professor McGonagall. She gave her welcoming speech and left them in a room off to the side. It was fairly quiet until someone let out a small scream. Harry looked up to see the ghosts flying through the room. He was sure they all did it on purpose to give the children a fright. He had met Sir Nicholas in the hall when he went on a walk with Madam Pomphrey once and the ghost had stopped by to visit him in the hospital a few times after that so he had a pretty good idea about what the ghosts thought was fun.

They entered the Hall and Hermione began to talk about the ceiling but stopped at Harry's look. She nodded and rolled her eyes at herself for forgetting so quickly. Instead she went back to looking at the ceiling and all around the room. They stood in line and waited for their names to be called. Harry clapped loudly for his two friends as they were sorted a little while before his own name was called. Whispers filled the room as he sat on the stool and the hat fell down over his eyes.

"Well what have we here Mr. Potter. Oh, you're in the game." The hat remarked, "So early too."

"It was an accident." Harry thought back, "I didn't see the age restriction sign."

"It actually is warded. If you got past then the ward felt you could handle anything you saw in there." The hat said, "Now most of the past game players came from Slytherin so I bet that is where you should go, let me look."

"I'd rather not go to Slytherin if you please." Harry thought, interrupting the hat's search.

"Why ever not?" it asked, "You'd be great in Slytherin."

"The aim of the game is to be unknown. I don't want to give them any idea about my goals. I'd prefer any of the other houses if it isn't too much trouble." Harry exclaimed to the hat, "I think they would suspect me least if I was either in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. Could I go to one of them?"

"They aren't going to know what hit them." The hat chuckled before calling out, "Gryffindor."

Cheers rose from the table of lions and Harry went to join them. He laughed through dinner and as he followed Percy up to the common room he remembered the short disturbance on the train.

"**They're saying Harry Potter is in this car, is it true?" a blond had thrown open their door but stood outside.**

**Harry reached to his side and slid the door back shut blocking the trio that had interrupted their fun ride. The door was shoved back open by one of the larger boys and was held there by his hand.**

"**That was quite rude." The blond growled.**

"**So was shoving your way into our compartment." Harry frowned back at the boy, "So what do you want from me Mr. Malfoy?"**

"**So you already know who I am and my social ranking. I can introduce you to real friends, the truly important people." Draco held out his hand, "I'm Draco."**

"**Well Mr. Malfoy." Harry sneered at his offered hand, "I already have found the truly important people. They were here before you entered. So shove off."**

"**You better be more careful or you'll meet the same sticky end as your parents." The blond threatened. Both larger boys cracked their knuckles in a threatening way.**

**Harry just reached up and shoved the door closed in their face again as a red head approached them and chased the younger boys off. **

Harry knew he needed to head off that trouble before it escalated too far. It wasn't until all four of his friends were in their beds after being sorted that Harry had a chance to look at his book on The Game again. There had been something he had been dying to find out ever since he heard the name of Malfoy's father on the platform. He started thumbing through the section on players but before he found that man's name he ran across another he had heard of from McGonagall.

_**Cornelius Oswald Fudge**_

_**Cornelius started the game August 23**__**rd**__**1965 when he became Junior Minister. It was a present from his father to congratulate him on his new job. His father had previously played The Game and thought his son would do well in it so he stepped out and let him have the book. **_

_**Cornelius has never opened the book therefore his game ended the same day it began. This gives him the distinction of the shortest game player of all time.**_

"What an idiot." Harry scoffed quietly, "To be given something so helpful and to just drop it. I can say what an idiot again." Next was the name he had been searching for.

_**Lucius Abraxas Malfoy**_

_**Lucius began the game July 3**__**rd**__** 1980 when he found the book and stole it from the bookstore. **_

_**Currently he has four goals set and accomplished. He also has two goals which have failed. This affords him with the worst succeed to fail ratio of any player currently in the game. Each goal he has consciously set for this game has been large and cumbersome. This low amount of goals and his known lust for power and control makes him the worst player ever recorded to participate in this game. **_

_**The last time he opened his book was on August 15**__**th**__** 1980 when he finally managed to finish reading the original section. He is currently playing but if Tom Riddle/Voldemort regains his physical form and Lucius returns to the service of the man he will lose his spot in the game regardless of him still owning the book. He fails to remember the goal of the game is that HE is to run the world not help someone else run it.**_

Harry shook his head again at the idiots who had found a chance to be something and had thrown it away without a second thought. His overall goal was fairly simple. He wanted everyone to be treated equally. He hated the way the Dursleys treated him and he didn't want to see anyone else treated that way. When Draco Malfoy had approached him earlier and offered to replace his friends he had been livid. Now however he had a better idea. It took a few days to catch the boy out on his own but when he did he cornered him.

"Malfoy." Harry drawled in his best imitation of the boy, "I can't believe they even considered you for Slytherin. You have as much cunning a dead mouse."

"I'm plenty cunning and when my father hears…" Draco stopped because Harry's wand was at his throat.

"I'm not worried about your father." He whispered roughly, "I'm trying to tell you something important and if you'll keep your mouth shut you'll learn it."

"I don't need…" he began again.

"Oh, I'd say you need this badly." Harry growled, "You thought you could replace the friends I've already made and that's not going to happen. That is why I refused to shake your hand. Now if you want to be allies we can talk but the other three will be my friends."

"But that's…" he stumbled.

"A rather Slytherin idea?" Harry asked and Draco nodded, "Tell me, which is more Slytherin. A Slytherin that oozes his Slytherinness everywhere or the Slytherin that hides in Gryffindor with no one the wiser?"

"No way." Draco disagreed.

"The hat said I'd be great in Slytherin. But great is not all that I will be." Harry explained, "I'll be pushing the buttons and showing them the right way."

Harry knew his explanation was close to the truth of the game but he didn't think the boy would apply it to anything more than controlling Gryffindors. The evil smile that appeared on Draco's face confirmed it.

"That's quite the piece of useful information." Draco smirked.

"One which you will keep to yourself if you want to keep this alliance." Harry pointed his wand at the boy again, "And you have yet to pay for that information. So what I want from you is the names of those who are followers of Voldemort in Slytherin."

"No, you'll just turn them all in." Draco shook his head.

"No, just like you not sharing that about me I won't share the list with anyone either. It's an equal trade that way." Harry pointed out, "I want facts not you just deciding who is a follower or not. I want to know their politics. Are they firmly pureblood only or are they more accepting of at least half bloods."

"That will be tough." Draco looked around shiftily, "I'll see what I can get you."

"Start with the first years and then move up to the older ones." Harry instructed before he left the area and Draco to his thoughts. When Harry got far enough away he grinned and thought to himself, "As the book says keep your friends close but your enemies closer."

He returned to the common room and cornered Ron, Hermione and Neville, "What did you find?"


	5. Chapter 5

"That Slytherins are not the only bad wizards." Ron huffed, "Every house has had their fair share though Slytherins have more by a slight margin."

"We also found that the worst one before You Know Who was actually a Hufflepuff." Neville grinned, "He was mad because he wanted to be a Slytherin and decided to make the whole world pay for the slight against his character. And he was a muggleborn."

"Ohhh, watch out for Hermione." Harry teased.

"We checked our information over several sources so it should be reliable. Then we found that most of the bad witches and wizards have not been pureblood. We suspect it's because the laws favor them therefore they don't want to buck the system." Hermione said, "Which doesn't really make sense for You Know Who and his pureblood supremacy stuff."

"What doesn't make sense is that he pushes pureblood supremacy when he isn't one." Harry shrugged nonchalantly.

"What?" Ron and Neville both shouted gaining quite a bit of attention in the common room.

"Shut up." Harry whispered furiously.

"Really." Hermione huffed at the two boys before turning back to Harry, "Now that makes better sense."

"What?" Ron and Neville asked much quieter.

"The demographics point to him having to be a halfblood or muggleborn because purebloods just don't go all megalomaniac." She pointed to the evidence they had gathered, "They already rule the magical world so overthrowing them wouldn't accomplish much. So the question remains what is his real agenda?"

"What do you think Harry?" Neville asked nervously.

"Well in my opinion I think he just wants to kill everyone off." He stated, "I think he uses the pureblood party line to get their help for now and when he is in place he'll kill them all and rule alone."

"That would serve them right." Ron said tactlessly.

"Ron!" Hermione huffed at him then paused, "As crude as his comment was I guess he's sort of right."

"Sort of." Harry agreed.

"But they'll hurt and kill everyone else until then." Neville whispered.

The twins took that moment to intrude on their conversation, "You four are not in Ravenclaw so why the books and studying already?"

"Well a comment was made on the train the other day and we were trying to get the truth." Hermione pointed to the papers, "And we have."

"What was the comment and was it true?" one of them asked.

"The comment was that all bad wizards have been Slytherin and the truth is no they aren't." Harry offered, "And we aren't even considering those that didn't go to Hogwarts."

"What?" they both looked shocked.

"Most major bad wizards we've seen in Britain have been either halfbloods or muggleborns who have tired of the pureblood rule and try to change it." Hermione stated.

"We are too so we decided to be next." Harry stated with a straight face which only cracked when the other three began to laugh.

"So we have to contend with Dark Lord Potter now?" One of the two of them said.

"Right so what is your agenda?" the other asked.

"To prank the purebloods so bad they cry and leave." Harry stated, "Of course we won't really be the next dark wizard but maybe a really grey one and I have to stop Voldemort first." Many people flinched in the room and it showed just how many were actually listening to the exchange.

"But we were all ready to swear allegiance to you and everything." They pouted.

"But you're purebloods and we're against that." Harry said, "I'm going to blood adopt Ron and Neville so they don't have to be in that foul group any longer."

"Well then you must blood adopt us too. Right Fred?" obviously it was George speaking.

"Right brother." Fred agreed.

"Hmmm I don't know if I have enough blood for that." Harry smirked.

"Well then we are a family of blood traitors so will that do?" Fred asked.

"Yes I guess I can accept that. It's just you I have to adopt Neville." Harry said.

"As long as you can promise I won't get your hair." Neville turned red and the group fell into laughter with him.

It was at that moment that their Head of House entered the common room. The laughter died slowly as people realized she had entered and was looking around. Harry had been expecting someone to come by and tell him about Sirius' trial soon. The paper had been full of speculation but nothing had come from the Ministry yet. So it was no surprise at all when she asked him to follow her.

"Mr. Potter would you come with me please?" She stated.

Harry stood and waved at his friends as he followed her out of the portrait hole, "Is this about Sirius?"

"Yes and he is free." She said, "I'm taking you to the hospital wing. It was decided to bring him here for his safety and your own. We couldn't have you gallivanting around St. Mungo's without an escort. And this way you can visit him every day without worry. He is in rather bad shape from his false incarceration."

"I imagine so." He agreed, "Can you tell me about the trial?"

She gave him a run down and when she mentioned that Peter Pettigrew was an animagus rat he asked his newest question, "How can you tell if an animal is an animagus and not an animal?"

"We have spells to reverse the transformation if they are one." She explained, "But there isn't anything to tell if it is or isn't."

"Would it hurt a regular rat if you used the spell on him and he wasn't a person?" Harry wondered.

"No it wouldn't hurt them or anything. Are you planning on collecting all the rats and bringing them in to be checked?" she grinned at his chuckle.

"That would be a job wouldn't it?" He laughed, "I'm not planning to do that. However I would like to check any I come in contact with. Scabbers should be checked. I know he's been in Ron's family for a long time but what better place to hide."

"How long have they had him?" she asked.

"I don't know but he was Percy's before he was Ron's." he explained as they reached the hospital. Harry sighed as he entered the room he was rather tired of, "Ron's is the one that's missing a toe if there is more than one in the tower."

This statement pulled the witch up short. She watched as the boy walked on in and walked toward his Godfather. She then turned and hurried from the room. Harry noticed her leave but didn't think anything of it as he began to visit with the man he should have been with all this time.

"Hi." He spoke first as the man's eyes were closed and he didn't know Harry was there.

"Hi." The man grinned widely when he saw the boy, "I'm Sirius, your godfather."

"I'm Harry, your godson." Harry laughed with the man.

"Poppy here tells me you are in Gryffindor." He fished for somewhere to start the flagging conversation, "Have you made any friends yet?"

"Several." Harry nodded, "Ron and his brothers the twins Fred and George, then Neville and Hermione. They're all in Gryffindor too. I haven't branched out to the other houses too much yet but I intend to."

"Good, so… do you know Moony?" Sirius asked.

"I know of Mad Eye Moody." Harry stated slightly confused.

"Right I mean Remus Lupin, his nickname is Moony like mine is Padfoot." Sirius waved him off, "So you've not met him?"

"No but I've heard a bit about him." Harry took a seat on the edge of the bed, "He's out of the country right now, but Professor Dumbledore is trying to reach him for me."

"No one has told me so I have been wondering who has been raising you?" Sirius asked.

"Aunt Petunia was until recently." Harry started.

"What?" he tried to sit up but didn't have the energy, "But she hated Lily. Who put you there?"

"Dumbledore did and she hates me too." Harry explained, "But that's why she is no longer my guardian. Madam Pomfrey and Hagrid helped me get out."

"Poppy didn't tell me that." Sirius looked towards the door to her office.

"Probably because she didn't want to be the one to tell you about the abuse." Harry shrugged.

"Abuse?" Sirius groaned weakly, "I'm going to kill them."

"You can't." Harry stated, "They're going to jail where they should be. If you try to hurt them you'll be blamed. Then where would that leave me?"

"You're right, I'm sorry." Sirius pulled him into a light hug, "I won't do that again."

"So what do you like to do for fun?" the conversation continued and by the time he left Harry felt he had a good idea of what kind of man his godfather was.

When he reached the common room it was in a bit of an uproar. Harry stepped gingerly into the room and waited for things to either calm down or for him to get enough information to act. Professor McGonagall was in the room and trying to get things calmed down.

"QUIET, are there any more pets in the dorm?" she called above the din.

"No this is all." Percy answered, "What's going on Professor?"

"This is Madam Bones." She introduced the woman Harry hadn't noticed, "We've had a report that someone's pet may be carrying something so we want to check them all out."

"Harry you're back." Ron called from across the room. He waved his rat at his friend and Harry suddenly realized exactly what was happening.

He moved farther into the room away from the pets so if they found this Pettigrew person he would be far away from him. In the meantime both Professor McGonagall and Madam Bones had been waving their wands over the pets. Ron seemed to be in the middle and the two women converged on him together. A quick wave of the wand saw the rat change. Ron let out a yell and dropped the rat who tried to scurry away but a quick stunner stopped his escape which was slowed by his changing form.

"Well this is interesting." Bones stated as she threw a spell at the man and bound him in ropes, "Just how long have you had this rat?"

"We've had him about ten years." Percy was the first of the Weasleys to be able to speak, "Who is he?"

"A wanted criminal." She said before levitating the man and directing him out the door, "Are we done here Minerva?"

"Yes." She glanced at Harry and nodded once, "I believe that will be all, go back to your homework."

She left and Harry made to get across the room to follow them out. Ron saw him at the door, "Harry?"

"I'll let you know when I know for sure." He waved the group off and slipped out the door.

He followed the two women and approached them as they reached the Professors office, "Is that Pettigrew?"

The two jumped and turned to find the boy standing behind them. Minerva took a deep breath and put her hand over her heart, "You gave me a fright Mr. Potter."

"Sorry I didn't mean to." He smiled slightly and then frowned at the man, "It is him isn't it. He's the man that got my parents murdered."

"I believe he is but we'll be taking him into custody and questioning him under veritiserum." Madam Bones couldn't refuse the boy the information.

"Can I tell Sirius?" he looked up at the woman who sighed.

"Wait until we confirm it." She said, "I will let you be there when we tell him."

"Thank you." He turned and headed back to the tower. Halfway there he was pulled into an alcove.

"I have a list of first years." Draco whispered.

Harry looked over the list and recognized each name from the sorting, "I don't see your name on here."

"We're allies." Draco shrugged.

"But I still need to know where you stand so I know how to deal with you." Harry pointed out.

"I'm your ally." He repeated.

"So you'll follow me instead of your father?" Harry asked.

"Uhhh…" the blond stepped back and looked around wildly.

"You're true allegiance is to your father and his pureblood agenda." Harry smiled, "That's fine, it helps me know where you are coming from."

"I don't think you fall into the category of most people." Draco stalled, "I think father will back you."

"He will back me when Voldemort returns?" Harry asked and watched the boy flinch, "You have to know he isn't dead."

"Father suspects it." Draco shivered.

"Think about this for a while." Harry put a hand on his shoulder, "When Voldemort returns he's going to be after me. He'll want me dead. Where will you're alliance lay then?"

"How do you know?" Draco looked into Harry's face.

"From what I understand I am the first person he wanted to kill that didn't die." Harry pointed out.

Draco understood his point and he let Harry walk away with the list in hand without further comment. The first years were divided Harry noticed when he was far enough away to view the list closely. Parkinson, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle would back their fathers and their Death Eater agenda while Zabini, Greengrass, Davis and Bulstrode were considered neutral. And lastly Malfoy was still deciding. He had just learned what he would be facing if he did indeed take Harry as an ally.

When he reached the common room again he was bombarded with questions. He held up a hand and explained, "I think that was Peter Pettigrew. You remember the trial in the prophet this week about Sirius Black?" Nods were his only answer, "They found out he was innocent and the real secret keeper was Peter Pettigrew, rat animagus."

"So the health check was really looking for that man?" an older girl asked.

"Rats are allowed pets and if he wanted to get in here and kill me then what better way." Harry shrugged.

"I thought the whole trial for Black was just a farce." Lee Jorden said, "I hadn't really paid any attention to it."

"No one thought he was innocent." Harry shrugged, "It's only when it was pointed out that he didn't have a trial to begin with that anything came about. They brought him from Azkaban and gave him truth serum and the truth came out."

Albus watched as Harry moved through Hogwarts making friends and allies in all sorts of places. He smiled thinking he had done the best for Harry by sending him to his relatives. Too bad they had to be such mean people. But at least he wasn't like that dreadful Malfoy boy. He then went back to his paperwork and trying to find a perfect way to protect the stone. Fluffy was in place as were the potions from Severus. Now he just needed something from Pamona, Minerva Quirinus and Filius the he would supply the coup de grâce. He was sure Voldemort was lurking around somewhere close, he could just feel it. The other protections would slow him down and his would keep Voldemort in place until he could get there and contain him. Once Voldemort was out of the way he would be the first ever winner of The Game. He might just need to get the book back out of his vault to see his success in print. Once he had succeeded he might hand his book down to Harry that is if he survives killing off Voldemort.

Harry felt his classes were going well. Potions was torture while Defense and History were jokes but the rest seemed to be shaping up nicely. As well as his classes were going he felt his Game was going even better. He was now up to fifteen goals accomplished and only two failed. His first failure had been his goal to get Hermione to quit answering, or trying to answer every question posed in class. He had set the goal to be accomplished in the first week. That had failed miserably. So he had extended the goal to the first month. That had also failed miserably giving him his second failure. This time he set the goal to be achieved by the end of seventh year. He was more confident he could actually accomplish this one.

One of the goals he was proudest of accomplishing was the one where he made a friend or ally from each house. It had taken him a longer time than he thought but he had learned with Hermione not to set time limits. Surprisingly Ravenclaw was the hardest house to get someone. He had finally gotten Padma to be his friend when she was introduced by Parvati, his house mate and her twin. He fondly recalled that incident.

"**Harry would you please tell Padma I'm right." Parvati drug her twin sister up to Harry in the library.**

"**She's right." Harry told them not really paying attention, to both girls irritation.**

"**I mean about the potions question." Parvati grumbled.**

"**Well what did you tell her?" He asked with a smirk.**

"**I told her the answer could be found in a third year herbology book." She huffed.**

"**That's where I found the answer." He agreed, "George helped me."**

"**Weasley?" Padma asked looking decidedly cautious.**

"**He even let me borrow his book." Harry pulled it out of his bag, "Here on page 235." He spread the book out and showed her the page.**

"**That's on belladona." She grumbled.**

"**That was the question we were given." He shrugged, "What question did you get?"**

"**Hellebore." She sat and pulled the book towards herself, "I guess it won't hurt to look and see if it's in here too."**

"**I think I saw it a few pages later when I was leafing through it." Harry offered.**

"**Why would you help me?" she asked as she turned pages, "I'm the competition in Ravenclaw."**

"**I think we should be friends regardless of house." Harry went back to his own homework, "Once we leave Hogwarts houses won't matter at all."**

"**You're right." Padma grinned as she went back to her book. Parvati waved at Harry and left quietly hoping her sister would quit pestering her to study now that she had another study partner.**

Harry glanced up at his current study partners. Nearly all of the first years now studied together. The only holdouts were the few in Slytherin who were into blood purity and refused to study with the muggleborns. Ron had been one of the last people in the group to welcome the Slytherins but when he found out that Milicent Bulstrode backed the Cannons too he completely dropped the slimy snake thing though he still applied it to Malfoy, Parkensen, Nott and the twin hulks.

Harry was drawn out of his thoughts when Minerva McGonagall approached the table, "Mr. Potter if you would come with me."

"Sure Professor." He replied and packed up his bag before addressing those at his table, "Later."

"Later Harry." they all replied including those for several tables around.

Minerva didn't comment but a quick glace told her most of first year was in this area and apparently studying together. They left the library and turned in the direction of the hospital, "We're meeting Madam Bones in the hospital."

"They've finally finished with Pettigrew then?" he asked softly.

"They have." She agreed.


	6. Chapter 6

They walked in silence as Harry prepared himself for the meeting. In truth he had no idea how Sirius would react to the news that his vengeance had already been handed out. They were almost to the doors when he asked, "What was the punishment?"

"I don't know." She replied, "We'll find that out together."

"The Headmaster won't be there will he?" Harry was almost sorry he had asked the question when he saw his professor's look.

"No, why?" her face was cover with suspicion.

"After the whole thing with the Dursleys and all I don't trust the Headmaster to have my best interests at heart." He shrugged, "I'm also not too sure I trust Sirius not to hex him."

"That is understandable." She smirked, "However the two have already had that… discussion."

"Really?" he asked and with her nod he continued, "I wish I could have seen it."

"Sirius may be able to talk about it later." She patted his shoulder as she pushed the door to the infirmary open.

"Harry!" Sirius called as they entered, "I want to be the one to finally introduce you to Moony aka Remus Lupin."

"Hi." Harry waved at the man sitting on the other side of the bed. Then he perched on a chair that McGonagall had transfigured for him, "Nice to finally meet you. Sirius has told me a lot but I promise I don't believe everything he tells me."

The man laughed at Harry and then turned and laughed harder at the pout on Sirius' face, "Serves you right Paddy, a Godson just like you."

The two men sobered when Minerva pulled up three more chairs and took one herself. Poppy came from her office and took one too. The men looked at each other before Sirius asked, "Who is the last seat for?"

"Not Albus." Minerva grinned, "He isn't too inclined to step foot into this room again with you still here."

"What did you do?" Remus turned an accusing face onto his friend.

"I hexed him for putting Harry with Petunia." Sirius grunted, "You would have helped if you would have heard what I did."

"I would have helped." Minerva claimed, "However that is in the past and we have something new to cover today. We're just waiting on Madam Bones."

"Are we in trouble already?" Remus asked with a half-smile hoping he was wrong.

"No you are not in trouble." Minerva took a deep breath to continue but the fire flared and the woman in question stepped out of the floo followed by Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Good everyone in place." She nodded and took the seat while Kinglsey warded the door and then stood in front of it.

"How are you doing Amy?" Sirius grinned in a cheeky manner.

"Lovely dog face and you?" she answered with her own cheeky grin and Harry's chuckle in the background.

"Curious." He answered not even batting an eye at the new nickname.

"Good, now with the pleasantries past we go on to business." She nodded, "When you were having your first chat with Mr. Potter here a few weeks ago I was in Gryffindor tower conducting a search. As Minerva walked Harry to visit with you he expressed interest in identifying an animagus. He suggested we check all the rats in school but most especially the ones in Gryffindor tower. His next comment however sent us scurrying. He said to check Mr. Weasley's rat first since it was in his dorm. We'd be able to tell which one it was because he was missing a toe."

"Bloody h…." he started but was muffled by a hand.

"Please continue." Remus said his hand still over Sirius' mouth.

"We conducted the search including all animals in the dorm so no one would be suspicious and try to run." She stated, "We put Mr. Weasley in the middle as we felt his rat was the most likely candidate. We performed the spell to force them to revert to their normal form. We reached Mr. Weasley together and revealed the rat as a man, stunned him and carted him away."

"Bloody h…" this time it was Sirius' hand that covered Remus' mouth.

Harry actually chuckled at the two of them who turned and realized what had happened. They both turned slightly red and removed their hands from each other's mouths and sat back.

"At the ministry we interrogated him and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was Peter Pettigrew and the Potter's secret keeper, he thus solidified your innocence." She smiled slightly, "Before scheduling his trial we spent several more days getting the names of death eaters and supporters from him. Only Moody, Shacklebolt and I were privy to his identity and location. He has implicated two hundred individuals. We have arrested three aurors, one hundred and fifty other ministry employees, seven Wizengamot members, ten healers and the last thirty were purebloods, mostly business men and women who also led a second life as dark arts suppliers. On top of that six others who are in Azkaban are being pulled to give a second trial. Since the main witness' against them at the time are now classified as death eaters, they will be given a veritiserum trial."

"Wow." Harry was the first to speak, "Did he get his trial yet?"

"Yes, but we wanted to get the supporters out of the Wizengamot first." She grinned, "We had his trial and he was pushed through the veil at five minutes after one today."

"I kind of wish I could have pushed him through." Sirius grumbled, "But at least it's done."

"He's in James' hands now." Remus patted a shoulder, "I think that will be the worst punishment he could get."

"Oh not that's not the worst." Sirius grinned, "Lily is there too and she was always much more creative than James was. Remember when James took Harry out on the broom for the first time."

"What happened?" Harry asked as the men dissolved into laughter.

"She… she…" Neither could talk right for several minutes as they tried in vain to tell him. Unfortunately for Harry he had to leave before they were able to stop. He promised himself he would find out just what she had done so that he could repeat it on someone, probably Sirius and Remus for making him wait.

"What did you find?" Harry asked the twins when he returned to the common room.

"A giant three headed dog sitting on a trap door." Fred whispered.

"We don't have any idea what he might be hiding." George added.

"I know but I don't know." Harry grinned when they rolled their eyes, "Hagrid picked it up from Gringotts when I was with him. A few days later the vault it had been in was robbed. But since it was an empty vault they didn't get anything."

"Gringotts isn't safe enough so they bring it here?" Hermione looked suspiciously at Harry, "To a school full of children? That just seems so… unlikely."

"I've already told you he is too old and set in his ways to do anything reasonable." Harry whispered furiously, "He assumed my relatives would take care of me and never checked. He put my Godfather in Azkaban on rumor. He misses the details in his fight to keep the big picture in place."

"I understand why you don't like him." She began.

"I don't trust him." Harry emphasized.

"I understand." She reiterated, "But that doesn't mean…"

"We got through the door using alohamora." Fred interrupted, "That's a first year spell."

"But…" she still hesitated.

"Come on Hermione." Ron jumped in, "He said not to go to that corridor on pain of death. I bet three quarters of the school have already checked it out to see what's there. And if they haven't then they are going to."

"Hermione, if you were headmaster and had the twins at your school would you have done the same thing?" Harry finally asked, "And would you allow Binns and Snape to continue teaching?"

"No." She conceded, "But he is a genius."

"He is I'm not arguing that." Harry touched her arm, "What I'm saying is that he doesn't have the best interests of the school or its students at heart. Either he is a doddering old fool or he's complete blind to the details."

"Or he has evil nefarious plans." George added in the background.

"Yes alright." She waved them off and completely ignored George, "But that doesn't mean we need to watch for the details. Surely the other professors do that."

"If they were doing that would we have a giant three headed dog in one of the rooms?" Neville asked quietly.

"Fine." She threw her hands in the air, "We'll investigate."

She turned and stomped up the girl's side and went to her dorm. Ron turned to Harry, "Why were we even arguing with her?"

"She's the most analytical mind in the whole school." Harry answered, "If she's on our side we figure it out in half the time or less. Let's get to bed I want to visit Hagrid first thing."

"Why?" the twins asked together.

"Who would you suspect owned a giant three headed dog?" he asked and left without waiting for the answer.

"If she's analytical then what are you?" Ron huffed as he followed Harry. The next morning as they were leaving Hagrid's hut he was huffy again, "Who names something like that Fluffy?"

"Better than Princess." Harry snickered.

"Better than Pumpkin." Fred added.

"Or Tiny." George offered the next opinion.

"Spot." Nevilled added with a grin, "He could have called it spot."

"I like Scary or Dangerous." Hermione shook her head, "Anything that actually describes the thing; a Cerberus, who brings a Cerberus into a school full of kids."

"Dumbledore, who else is crazy enough to?" Harry commented, "Now all we have to do is find out who Nicholas Flamel is and we're good."

"Good for what?" Neville asked with trepidation.

"I know I've heard the name." Hermione ignored the other boy, "Just within the last couple of months."

"Where did you hear it?" Fred asked.

"Common room I think." She tapped her chin, "I think it was one of the first year boys."

"Maybe Dean or Seamus knows." Ron shrugged.

"What are we going to do with the information when we have it?" Neville asked loudly for him.

"That depends." Harry shrugged.

"On what." He responded trying to get the information.

"On what it is, why it's being hidden and who is after it." Harry patted his friend's shoulder, "It's not like I'm going to make you go down the hatch. If anyone goes it will probably be me, but not until much later when we know more information."

"Why you?" Hermione asked looking critically at her friend, "Why should anyone go down?"

"If Dumbledore has done something that is a danger to the students someone will have to go down and dismantle it or get rid of it." Harry said, "I don't trust him not to forget the students are here."

"You know I'm having a lot of trouble with this." Hermione huffed, "Dumbledore knows what's best for the school, that's why he's the headmaster."

"Forget it Hermione you just can't understand." Ron finally blew, "Harry doesn't trust him for a very good reason and if Harry says we go jump off a cliff then I'll be in line right behind him. If you were half the friend he thinks you are you'd be right beside me."

"I'd not be stupid enough to jump off a cliff." She huffed before stomping away.

"You'd jump off a cliff?" Fred asked, "Can I watch?"

"I didn't mean literally." Ron stomped off the other direction.

"Their first fight." George sighed, "Oh how beautiful is young love."

At lunch Hermione wasn't anywhere around and she wasn't in classes. Harry went in search of the twins to ask them to help look for her. Instead they pulled him up to their dorm. George kept an eye out at the door while Fred pulled Harry over to the bed and presented a parchment to him.

"Tap it and say 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good'." He instructed.

Harry complied and watched as lines began to draw all over the paper, "It's a map."

"A very special map." Fred grinned, "It shows everyone."

"All day long." George added.

"Where they are and where they're going." Fred started flipping pages.

"Do you know who the four people at the beginning were?" Harry asked with a grin.

"No but they are our idols." George stated from the door, "It's probably a hundred years old or more."

"Here she is." Fred got his attention, "Second floor girl's bathroom."

"That's Moaning Myrtle's bathroom." George stated then warned, "Percy's headed up the stairs."

"Mischief managed." Fred tapped the map and quickly folded and put it away.

George had sat on the next bed by the time the door opened and Percy stuck his head in, "What are you two up to?"

"There are three of us Perc." Fred said glibly, "I thought you could count better than that."

"I doubt Harry is causing any trouble." He turned to the boy with raised eyebrows.

"That's right." Harry grinned innocently, "I just came to ask some advice about Hermione. She's upset and I'm trying to make her feel better."

"Don't ask these two." Percy huffed, "They wouldn't know how to care about someone else's feelings."

"That's why I'm talking to them. I want to know why she's upset." Harry nodded, "I figure they're the best ones to know why."

"They probably caused it." Percy frowned.

"Actually, Ron did." Fred frowned back at him and twiddled his wand, "We were just discussing it. So if you'll leave please."

"Behave and don't try anything on Harry or Mum will hear about it." He left the room quickly not wanting to be at the business end of Fred's wand.

"You are such a suck up." George nudged Harry.

"All the better to hide my mischief making." He laughed, "I've got to go but think about what you would do to be introduced to Padfoot and Moony."

"Introduce us?" they asked together, "You know who they are?"

"Yep." Harry quickly left the room before they could gather themselves to start badgering him. He found Ron in the common room and grabbed his arm and pulled him to the door, "Come on."

"What?" Ron squeaked as he was nearly pulled off his feet, "Where are we going? It's a bit too early for afternoon classes."

"Hermione wasn't in any morning classes nor was she at lunch." He pointed at his friend, "You upset her and I want you to apologize."

"What for?" he tried to argue, "I didn't do anything."

"You hurt her feelings." Harry answered, "You can't say mean things to girls or they hold it against you forever. An apology will go a long way and you need to do it."

"Can't you…" he began

"No you will do this." Harry huffed, "Haven't you ever been made to apologize before?"

"No usually it's the twins doing something to me." He replied.

"And does it actually help you feel better when they really truly mean it?" He asked.

"Well yea." He shrugged.

"So…." Harry prodded.

"Fine I will apologize for hurting her feelings." He grumbled as they reached the bathroom.

"Hermione are you in there?" Harry called from the door.

"What do you want?" she sounded like she had been crying.

Harry nudged Ron to say see. Ron nodded and then said, "Hermione would you please come out I want to apologize."

She was closer to the door when she asked, "What are you apologizing for?"

"For hurting your feelings because I was being mean." He sighed, "I just wanted to you quit questioning Harry."

"I'm sorry I keep pushing Dumbledore on you Harry." She sniffed as she left the room and pulled both boys into a hug, "I just don't understand why you don't trust him with things other than the Dursleys. I mean one mistake and you're willing to just never trust him again. What happens if I make a mistake?"

"It isn't just one." He explained, "I spent ten horrible years there. Every day was some punishment or load of chores that could never be done in time. Every day he had a choice to check up on me or send someone to check. That's three thousand six hundred and fifty times he could have checked and didn't. Now let's add Sirius on top of that now he has seven thousand three hundred times he didn't do what he was supposed to."

"I can understand Sirius' was awful every day but your relatives weren't that bad were they?" she asked.

"If you saw the medical report that Madam Pomfrey made up you wouldn't be saying that." He argued, "She is leading the prosecution to get the two of them jail time. If you do something to put me in a place where I'm abused for ten years then yes I won't trust you either. I had twenty five broken bones in those ten years Hermione. How many did you have?"

"None." She sighed and looked to Ron.

"I had one broken wrist due to a flying mishap." He shrugged, "Just so you know I wasn't being literal about the cliff thing. I was just trying to get you to see I trust Harry. He wouldn't have me jump off a cliff without a really good reason."

Hermione giggled and the three of them left to go to their next class. Being that it was Halloween the day wasn't quite like any other day. Harry was trying not to think about his parents and everyone else was in a party mood. This lead Harry to just nearly hexing people. He finally left Ron and Hermione after the last class and took a walk to clear his mind. Just before the feast Harry met Draco to get another list of Slytherins. This time he had the fourth years and he handed it over.

"Thanks." Harry started looking it over.

"Harry, I've been thinking." Draco whispered, "I think I want to stay a secret ally."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes." He looked tense, "I've been thinking that I really like how things are right now. My parents are home every night and I know they are safe. If or when You Know Who comes back that's all going to end. I'll never know if my father is at home or out on a raid. I won't know if he comes back safe or not. If I help you stop him from returning then things don't have to change."

"But if we don't succeed in that?" Harry asked.

"One thing at a time." Draco sighed, "Hopefully if that happens I'll be older and better know how to deal with it."

"Ok, I can agree to that." Harry nodded, "Just let me know before you end our alliance and I'll do the same for you."

"Agreed." Draco sighed, "We better get going. The feast should be starting soon."

They walk together for a few moments before Harry took a shortcut leaving Draco to walk the long way. Harry arrived at the Great Hall first and found Ron and Neville sitting together but no Hermione in sight.


	7. Chapter 7

"Please tell me you didn't make her mad again already." He asked as he sat.

"No she can't find her Transfiguration book and went to look in Myrtle's bathroom to see if she left it in there." Neville answered for the flushed red head.

Before anymore could be said Professor Quirrell entered the room yelling about a troll. The students were told to return to their dormatories and Harry just shook his head. He was sending the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs right into the path of the troll. As they left the room Harry tapped one of the fourth year Slytherins that Draco said was neutral.

"What?" he growled.

"If the troll is in the dungeons your houses may want to stay here." He suggested loud enough that the Hufflepuff that wasn't far away heard too.

The boy looked stunned but headed to the front of his line and whispered to the prefect, a move that was mirrored by the Hufflepuff. Several of both groups looked back at Harry who nodded and turned away pulling Ron and Neville with him, "We need to warn Hermione."

"Lead the way off the cliff." Neville snickered.

Harry gave him a mock glare before running towards the second floor. They didn't knock at the door this time just ran straight in. A small scream from Hermione stopped them in their tracks.

"What are you doing in the girl's bathroom?" she hissed once she had calmed.

"There is a troll loose in the dungeons so we thought we should walk you back to the common room instead of leaving you to roam the halls alone." Harry shrugged before he added his kicker, "Dumbles sent us back to our dorms including the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. Why does that bother me… oh yea their dorms are in the dungeons."

"He… he… why did he do that?" she looked shocked.

"Forgotten details in the midst of the big picture and…" Harry stopped mid-sentence and sniffed, "Uh oh."

"What is that it smells like…" Hermione started.

"A twelve foot tall backed up toilet." Harry finished.

"Twelve foot?" Ron asked but a growl by the door made them all turn around and see the troll, "Oh, that twelve foot backed up toilet."

"Wands out." Harry suggested, "I don't feel like dying right now."

"What are we going to do scare it with sparks?" Ron asked none of them really knew any magic.

"Levitate him." Neville suggested, "Its the only spell I've got down really good."

"All together on three." Harry ordered, "One, two, three."

"Wingardrium leviosar." They all called together.

Three spells hit the troll and the fourth hit his club. The troll didn't levitate but the club did and it looked up stupidly at it as the club floated over its head.

"End it now." Harry yelled.

"What?" Ron was distracted and dropped the spell and the club fell and hit the troll on the head and knocked it out. Ron looked surprised for a moment before he got a wicked grin, "I meant to do that."

"Yea right." Neville laughed, "So how do we let the teachers know where it is?"

"This way I can smell it." They heard McGonagall's voice call.

"I think they know." Hermione shifted uneasily.

"Here it is… what are you all doing in here?" McGonagall gasped and was followed by the rest of the teachers.

"Hermione was in here when Quirrell started yelling about the troll." Ron began.

"So we had to come warn her." Neville added.

"It arrived just a few moments after we did." Harry talked quickly before she could start to yell at them.

"Neville suggested we try to levitate it since that was the only spell we know. It didn't levitate it but it worked on the club. When the club was over its head we ended the spell."

"Five points deduction for not thinking of telling a prefect instead of coming after her yourselves. Five points for thinking of another student. And five each for managing..." she didn't finish but waved at the troll lying on the floor.

"Back to your common room." Dumbledore ordered.

The four left and were part way up the stairs before the other three noticed Harry's frown. Hermione asked first, "What's wrong?"

"Tell me Hermione, what would you do if four first years had just faced a troll and lived to tell the tale?" he asked.

"I don't know." She shrugged, "Did you think they didn't give us enough points?"

"No, maybe it's just me but I think I would have taken them to the hospital to be looked over first. Or possible even asked if anyone was hurt." He sighed.

"You're right." Hermione admitted, "That is what they should have done."

"At least one of them should have walked us back to Gryffindor tower." Ron sighed, "What if there is more than one troll?"

"Let's hurry." Neville looked around and tried to make the others move faster.

"Where have you four been?" Percy lit into them right away, "I have half a mind to take points and give you detention with McGonagall."

"I don't think she'd like that since we were with her." Harry shrugged without really answering Percy.

"Where did you guys go?" Fred approached a few moments later and whispered his question.

"We stopped to suggest the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs not be sent to their dorms since they're in the dungeon." Harry stated, "Then we went to get Hermione from the girl's bathroom. The troll caught up to us and Ron knocked it out with its own club."

"It was Neville's idea to use the levitation charm." Ron shrugged.

"Are you teasing us?" George asked.

"Nope you can ask McGonagall." Neville told them, "She found us a few moments after he knocked it out."

"Are you ok Hermione?" Fred asked, "You look a little ill."

"I'm just a bit… concerned by tonight." She shrugged.

"Don't worry trolls don't get in very often." He consoled her, "In fact I'm betting it's the first time."

"No you misunderstand." She said, "First of all as Harry pointed out he should never have sent the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs to their dorms in the dungeons where the troll was supposed to be. Second he shouldn't have sent anyone else out into the hall since they didn't know for sure where it was or as Ron pointed out how many there were. Third they should have done a roll call to see if anyone was not safely in the Great Hall. Lastly Harry again pointed out that they sent us back to the common room alone without asking if we were hurt. They have no clue if we are safely in our tower. They have no clue if we are injured."

Just then McGonagall opened the door and the room quieted, "Have you done a head count?"

"No professor." the seventh year prefect answered and moved to do just that, "Everyone get in your year group."

The room erupted into chaos except for the first years. The other first years quickly moved to Harry's group. Harry was sure they were all there then he yelled above the crowd, "All first years are present."

McGonagall looked over at him and smiled, "Second years move to the side of the first, third beside them and so on."

"Second years are all here." Another voice popped up. Then one from each of the following years, nearly everyone was present. Those that weren't were supposed to be in the hospital.

"I will check on them. Are you four ok?" she asked, "Do I need to see anyone to the hospital?"

"I'm fine." Harry looked the others who all nodded, "Professor has anyone checked the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs?"

"Professor Snape and Flitwick were headed that way." She answered.

"OK well just so you know they may still be in the Great Hall." He said, "I didn't think it was a good idea to send them to the dungeons where the troll was supposed to be. Why did you even trust Quirrell to know where it was or to tell the truth about it?"

"He was always a trustworthy student so unless he loses my trust I believe when he tells me something." She answered, "The other two houses however is a different story. Thank you for pointing out the flaw in the plan I will endeavor to think more clearly in any future situations."

"Any idea how it got it?" he asked.

"No." she replied, "Dumbledore is looking into it though so we shouldn't worry about it."

"Professor… that doesn't make me feel any better." Harry confessed.

She grimaced and patted his shoulder, "I'll be calling Amelia."

"Thank you." He nodded.

That night Harry looked at the book again. As he was looking over Tom's section he was alarmed that he had gained another goal. Knowing he had a goal achieved meant he was on the move. Harry unconsciously rubbed as his scar as he was looking over the book. He had decided weeks ago that gained goals by either Dumbledore or Riddle was not going to be good news for him. A few days later Harry began to get a headache in Defense class.

"Harry what's wrong?" Hermione asked a week into November, "You look pale."

"Headache." He shrugged.

"Go to Madam Pomfrey." She suggested.

He did as she suggested and when he arrived he almost left because his headache was already better than it had been. But she spotted him before he could turn around and leave.

"What's wrong Mr. Potter?" she asked.

"I had a terrible headache earlier but I'm feeling better so I don't think I need anything after all." He shrugged and turned.

"Well, let me just look you over, it can't hurt." She patted the bed and he sat on it, "I don't get any readings but your scar is redder than I've ever seen it."

"How do I have a scar?" he asked, "Everyone has told me the killing curse doesn't leave any traces so why do I have it?"

"I don't know. I ran scans on it when I first did your check up and I didn't get anything." She sighed, "I've been looking up everything I can think of and I don't even know what kind of scans I should run to check it with. I'm not a dark arts expert so I'm floundering here. I've thought of bringing in a specialist but Dumbledore has refused."

"Is there anyone here who is an expert?" he asked.

"Professor Snape." She smiled slightly knowing how the two of them didn't get along.

"Maybe I can ask Sirius if he knows of anyone." Harry sighed.

"That would be best." She offered, "Maybe he can set up something over the holidays?"

"Here you are." McGonagall entered followed by Madam Bones, "Madam Bones would like to talk to you a moment if you are willing."

"Of course." He answered.

"How is your headache?" she asked as she sat on the opposite bed.

"Fine now, I didn't even end up needing a potion." He shrugged, "I'm beginning to think it's the garlic in Professor Quirrell's turbin.

"He has garlic in his turban?" Amelia asked looking at Minerva.

"He ran into a vampire during his travels." She shrugged, "I agree it smells terrible."

"I'm sure you didn't just come to check on my headache." Harry grinned lightly, "What else can I help you with?"

"I just wanted to commend you on your level headed thinking." She replied, "I think you'll find most wizards, and witches, don't have a lick of sense. Without magic I'd be worried about how some of them make it through the day."

"I don't think that stops with just wizards." Harry offered with a shrug, "You'd be surprised how many muggles end up in the hospital for doing something stupid that could have easily been avoided if they'd used their grey matter." He tapped his head as he spoke.

"Good to know." The woman smiled, "The next thing on our agenda is that your relatives have been arrested and are in the holding cells at the ministry. They'll be given a veritiserum trial and then we'll be sending them to a muggle prison. We have an agreement with the other Government for this kind of thing."

"Ok." He was pleased with the attention his case was getting. It was getting enough to get the job done but not enough that it was splashed all over the newspaper, "What about having Sirius for my guardian."

"We're having a bit of trouble with that." She conceded.

"Dumbledore doesn't want to let go." Harry surmised, "But he's the one that sent me to live with the Dursleys. Surely that should count against him."

"It does but we have no concrete evidence that you are supposed to go to Sirius instead." She exclaimed, "Albus was the executer of the will and he had it sealed for your safety."

"Are you sure he was the executer?" Harry asked.

"Yes we are sure of that." She smirked before it fell and she moved on, "One last thing we were not able to find any place where the troll broke in."

"Does that mean someone let it in?" Harry asked.

"Most likely." She agreed with a frown, "We can't prove who."

"I would suspect Quirrell first." Harry suggested and continued to explain when asked, "He was the first to see it. There's a rather rude saying amongst the boys. He who smelt it dealt it."

"Interesting saying." Amelia tried to hide the grin but failed.

"Now if we could just get Albus to let loose we'd have all the problems solved." Minerva sighed.

"I'm not worried about Christmas because if he doesn't let me go with Sirius I can just get Sirius to come here." Harry smirked.

"I'll make sure he knows he has my permission to do that." Minerva grinned, "One more thing. Sirius contacted me about having you see a specialist in dark curses. He's bringing his cousin here to look you over."

"Tell me he has a cousin that isn't a death eater." Harry begged.

"He does. Andromeda is a healer and she got kicked out of the family for marrying a muggleborn." Amelia grinned.

"I wish I would have thought of her months ago." Poppy entered the conversation at last, "But we can't do it here. Albus keeps interfering."

"He'll have a few ICW meetings in December. He always does. We'll schedule it for during one of those times." Minerva instructed.

The first game of the quidditch season was Gryffindor against Slytherin. Everyone knew Gryffindor had a new seeker but no one knew who it was. The times Harry had gone to practice was hidden as the twins had decided to teach him how to fly. They hadn't even used the pitch. Sirius had purchased him a top of the line broom and everyone had been told it belonged to Wood. Not even Harry's friends new he was training and Ron had been out with him. As they sat in the locker room waiting for the game to begin Harry thought back to his first flying lesson with Hooch.

**They had all been standing in their lines learning to mount their brooms when Neville's had jumped into the air and then dumped him off before anyone could move. Hooch had taken him off to the hospital and Malfoy had picked up his remerberall and was going to hide it. Harry followed him up to get it back.**

"**Why are you being such a git?" Harry asked quietly.**

"**I need to talk to you and I couldn't get you alone." He hissed, "I need to give you the seventh year list."**

"**I'll meet you on the second floor by the girl's bathroom." Harry suggested, "No one ever goes there."**

"**Sounds good." He replied, "I'm going to throw this, try not to let it break." **

He had ended up catching the ball and getting on the team. He was sure Malfoy was going to be livid when he found out he'd helped Harry get the spot. Sirius had been thrilled and had bought him the broom the same day. It hadn't even taken him two minutes to get McGonagall on his side to allow the broom. She loved the idea of a secret weapon as much as Wood had. Harry wondered how his friends were going to react when he went out.

As they flew out from their entry Lee was introducing the team, "I give you the Gryffindors, Wood, Johnson, Bell, Spinnit, Weasley, Weasley and… whoa… I can't believe it. Are you kidding me Wood?"

"Just make the announcement Jorden." McGonagall instructed loudly.

"Potter." He looked up at the smallest flyer, "They put a first year on the team."

There was total silence for about two beats before most of Slytherin began to cheer wildly thinking the game was in the bag. Gryffindor cheered too, especially the first years that had seen Harry fly. They, however, didn't know that Oliver and the twins had been spending a lot of time teaching him about the game. Harry didn't dare look at his friends as he landed with the rest of the team waiting for Hooch to start the game.

After the hand shake, or as Oliver said the hand crush, was over the balls were sent into the air followed by the fliers. Harry headed to the top of the stadium and began his search, acting like he was following the opposing seeker. Oliver told him that would take even more attention off him if they thought he was going to follow them around instead of making his own search. When the first fake came Harry was ready and he followed the other boy down before he pulled off and headed back up. Everyone was sure he had fallen for the fake.

Finally after nearly an hour of play with the snitch coming and going Harry saw it and was sure he could get to it first. The ball was closer to him but down near the ground at the Gryffindor end. Keeping an eye on the ball he floated away from the other seeker. Soon enough the Slytherin seeker tried another fake and he took a dive. Harry followed in the dive but when the Slytherin cut it off hoping to ditch Harry he got a surprise. Harry turned at ground level and flew along the bottom. Just as he reached the snitch his broom gave a buck and he went flying off. The entire stadium gasped as he rolled across the ground but it broke into hysterics when he held up the snitch for all to see. He didn't think anyone saw that the unexpected buck along with a fortunate turn of the snitch sent it right past his hand and into his open mouth.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell me." Ron was still pouting when the younger years had been sent to bed after the party.

"I can't believe you didn't catch on." Harry grinned in response, "You were the cover story."

"Exactly why I can't believe you didn't tell me." He repeated.

"Wood wanted me to make an unbreakable vow not to tell anyone but McGonagall wouldn't let him." Harry chuckled, "Can you really blame me for not telling?"

"No, but Fred and George… never mind they never tell me anything and if they did I doubt I would believe them anyway." Ron gave up on his pout.

"Harry when you blood adopt me would you share your flying abilities?" Neville joked, "I don't want on the team, I just want to fly without falling."

The dorm room broke into laughter as they got ready for bed. Dean and Seamus were the last to climb into beds and they both congratulated Harry again as they did. Harry was the first to sleep that night though he didn't stay that way for long.


	8. Chapter 8

"Harry?" Fred shook him gently and helped the boy sit up, "Sirius is in the fire for you."

"What?" he asked stumbling out of bed and reaching for his glasses.

Fred helped him put on a robe and herded him out the door, "You never talked to someone through the floo?"

"No." Harry shook his head but followed the boy down.

"Harry!" Sirius' head was sure enough in the flames.

"You know that looks really creepy." He offered as he sat on the couch between the twins.

"I know that's why I did it." Sirius chuckled, "Congratulations on your first win."

"Thanks it was brilliant to play." He grinned back at his godfather.

"The twins tell me you fell off your broom, did you get hurt?" he asked his voice changing from cheer to concern.

"I didn't fall off really." He explained, "It bucked me off."

"Bucked you off?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, I was flying along just fine and almost had the snitch in my hand when it dropped about a foot. Luckily the snitch did too or I would have missed it." He explained.

"You better get McGonagall to look over your broom." Sirius instructed, "They don't just drop without you telling them to."

"Ok." Harry nodded along intending to do just that.

"What should she look for?" Fred asked.

"Any kind of jinx." Sirius stated, "I can think of several that could make a broom act like that. But whoever did it had to be watching him without blinking."

"I think that would be most of the stadium." George chuckled along with the rest of the team that was sat around them.

"I better let you get to bed." Sirius grinned when Harry gave up a huge yawn, "Don't want to make your team mates carry you up because you fell asleep talking to me."

"Goodnight." Harry yawned again and waved as Sirius left the fire.

Fred made sure he made it back to bed. The next day all his study friends met in the library to study. They all congratulated him, even the Slytherins did so reluctantly. After a few frowns from the other first years Millicent set them all straight.

"When he beats your teams you'll understand better." She huffed.

"You're right." Ron grinned, "They will be a bit more miffed then."

"This was just a surprise." Susan huffed, "Cedric will beat him."

"I bet Cho will too." Terry added, "You won't be a secret weapon any longer."

Harry just grinned and went back to his studying. He still had some surprises up his sleeves. The rest of November was pretty quiet. He was still getting headaches in Defense, Snape was still a headache in potions and History was still nap time. At least he could use the time to get rid of the headaches. December first came along and with it the twins were pulling Harry aside.

"Dad has a friend in the inheritance office." Fred began.

"There is a little known law that will allow an underaged wizard to request a private viewing of a parental will." George added, "You have to fill out a stack of documents to request it."

"It has to be done in front of an adult that is trustworthy." Fred finished, "And we happen to have a complete set of the paperwork needed."

"How did you get it?" Harry asked as he received an inch thick stack of parchment.

"We just told him we had a friend that was having trouble getting a will read because he was underaged." George grinned.

"Did you tell him it was me?" Harry asked.

"No, our parents support Dumbledore pretty stiffly." George shrugged.

"Dad would have asked him first and he would have shut it down." Fred stated, "We didn't want this squashed."

"Or we'd never get that introduction you promised." George finished.

"Good point." He agreed, "Now do you think I should use Pomfrey or McGonagall?"

"Poppy." The intoned together, "We can get you there overnight without anyone being too suspicious."

"Excellent." Harry nodded, "Are you all staying over for Christmas?"

"Yes Mum and Dad are taking Ginny to go and visit Charlie." Fred shrugged.

"Ok Padfoot and Moony will be here over Christmas some so I'll introduce you then." Harry grinned, "Now how am I going to end up in the hospital?"

That night at dinner Harry broke out in hives after drinking some pumpkin juice. The twins were apologizing fervently as they helped him out of the hall after gaining a detention with McGonagall for pranking him. When he reached the hospital Fred flicked his wand and the hives disappeared.

"What is going on?" Poppy asked after witnessing their magic.

"They're helping me out." Harry climbed on a bed and pulled the table up then sat the stack of papers on the table, "I need a reliable adult to watch me fill out these papers."

"What are they for?" she asked concerned what the twins were coercing him to do.

"To get a private reading of my parents will." Harry grinned.

"Right you two go keep a watch out for Dumbledore." She instructed the twins, "I'll set up a dictaquill so this can go faster. I'll also be wrapping up your face so that if he comes in we will be able to hide that you are already cured. You'll have to stay overnight."

"No problem." Harry agreed, "If this gets me to Sirius' custody I'd stay a week."

It took the rest of the evening but the forms were filled out and cosigned by Poppy. Next she contacted Minerva and Amelia to come and make sure everything was done correctly.

"Where did you get this?" Amelia looked over the forms.

"The twins wrote there dad." Harry explained since they had left for the tower, "He didn't know who he was getting it for specifically. They just told him a friend of theirs needed a way to open their parents will and asked if he knew of any way to get it done."

"That's a really good idea." She grinned, "I wouldn't have thought to do that. I was trying to go through the Wizengamot. I'll take these back to the office and see what needs to happen next."

"I've already signed up to stay here for Christmas." Harry informed her, "Sirius and Remus are coming after Dumbledore leaves for his meeting. They're going to introduce me to his good cousin."

The rest of the month before the break went rather quickly. Dumbledore left the same day as the train so Sirius and Remus arrived just after. His friends followed him to the Great Hall to meet them. Harry was grinning like mad when they all gathered about the Gryffindor table. He sat between Sirius and Remus while he got Ron and the twins to sit across from them.

"Shall I make the introductions?" Harry asked.

"We know each other already." Fred replied confused.

"Yes, you introduced them to us months ago." George added.

"But I didn't do it properly." Harry explained, "You guys remember Ron, Fred and George right?"

"Yes." Sirius and Remus frowned slightly.

"Good, so guys may I introduce you to Padfoot and Moony." Harry laughed when the twins fell off the bench, "So worth it."

"You guys ok?" Sirius asked.

The twins jumped back to their feet and nearly threw themselves across the table to shake their hands, "You are our idles."

"Ok." Remus looked confused.

"They have the map." Harry finally explained when he got his laughter under control and turned back to the twins, "Prongs was my dad and the traitor rat was Wormtail."

"Well, now this explains things a bit better." Fred took on a superior look on his face.

"How is that?" Harry asked.

"Well, you pranked us." George explained, "You've held us off for more than a month on who they were."

"It makes us feel better that the son of the Marauders got one over on us." Fred added, "It's in your blood."

"They were the best." George agreed.

"Were?" Sirius asked with a cocky grin and a shake of his head, "Still are."

From there the two teams began to brag about pranks they had been a part of, back and forth they told bigger and better pranks. Ron and Harry spent the evening clutching their sides as they gasped for breath, laughing as hard as they could. The next morning Harry was up before Ron and headed out to the hospital where he was going to finally meet Andromeda Tonks. However, when he reached the hospital there were three people he didn't know instead of one.

"Sirius?" Harry timidly approached his godfather who was talking to a young woman with pink hair.

"Harry let me introduce you to my baby cousin Nympha…" he began only to be interrupted by said woman.

"Don't call me that." She hissed.

"…dora." He finished, "I can't introduce you as Tonks and then your mother as Andromeda Tonks it would be too confusing. Now he knows not to use the name upon pain of death."

"Right." She frowned at him before turning to Harry, "Watcher. Call me Tonks or else."

"Ok." Harry gave her a cheeky grin, "Tonksorelse it is."

"Oh, you think you're cute do you." She growled playfully.

"Thanks." He chuckled as Sirius called over his cousin.

"Andy this is Harry. Harry, Andromeda but you can call her Andy." He waved at the approaching woman.

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Tonks." Harry nodded at her unsure of how he should greet her.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Potter." She replied.

"Just Harry." He smiled politely.

"So you're Justharry and she's Tonksorelse." Sirius chuckled, "Then we have Andy. Are you sure you don't want a better nickname? It seems so plain now Andy."

"Well I can't have dog breath you've already taken that one." She grinned back before she began her exam, "Harry please sit on this bed and I'll take a look at that scar. What can you tell me about it?"

"I got it when I was one." He answered truthfully, "I had a bad headache a few weeks ago and Madam Pomfrey said it looked red."

"She told me about that." Andromeda commented as she pulled his fringe out of the way, "You've never notice anything else?"

"No." he replied.

"I'm going to do a few tests." She looked him in the eye, "I won't lie to you some of these may hurt. One thing about dark curses, they hurt going on and coming off."

"Makes sense." He nodded, "They are dark for a reason."

"Yes they are." She agreed. Several hours later she tiredly sat on a chair someone had conjured for her and everyone gathered around, "Well, I don't know what it is yet but I've ruled out a few things and learned a thing or two."

"What can we rule out?" Sirius asked.

"It is not killing him, so that takes out a large chunk of darker spells. I'm not seeing any nerve or organ damage and that removes a lot of the other curses." She smiled, "Lastly it was not caused by the killing curse."

"What have you learned?" her husband Ted asked.

"I believe it was the last spell that hit him which is to say it came after the killing curse." She explained, "It's parasitic in nature. That means that if you weren't magical it would not still be there. Of course if you weren't magical you wouldn't be here asking about it either."

"It's living off my magic?" Harry asked, "Why don't I feel it?"

"Yes living off your magic is correct. It doesn't take a lot but someone with a lower level than you would feel the drain." She agreed.

"Lower level of what?" he asked wanting to make sure he understood what she was saying.

"Magic." She paused a moment to think of how to phrase the next bit so that he could understand, "Each person can be placed in a level. If we speak of age levels we may say babies are new born up to about three years old. Children are three to nine, preteens are ten to twelve and so on. Magical levels work like than but instead of age we work with the amount of magic you put off."

"What do you mean put off?" he was very attentive.

"A human body can only contain so much magic. If you are producing more than you can use you basically leak." She explained with a grin, "Someone your size not actively using magic can hold sixty units of magic. It's called your sitting magic and is what you can contain when sitting still. If you are leaking twenty units then you are producing eighty units."

"If I'm leaking thirty then its ninety units." He was beginning to understand.

"Correct." She smiled, "In your case you are leaking forty units but your sitting usage is higher because of the parasitic dark magic in your scar. Depending on how much it is taking you could jump to forty one or on up towards fifty or even more. We really don't know. For others, if it is taking ten units from someone who only produced seventy units sitting they may feel some fatigue when they've been casting."

"Because their number falls below sixty units when they cast?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"What are the levels?" he asked.

"As a child we don't assign a level because your magic grows as you do." she smiled, "However for adults we have five levels Magician, Sorcerer, Master, Sage and Mage. A Magician level adult will put off up to fifteen units, Sorcerer level up to thirty, Master up to forty five, Sage up to sixty and anything over sixty is a mage. The put off can change drastically until you reach full maturity. Women reach it around sixteen to twenty and men from nineteen up to twenty three. At that time most people stabilize and we can put them in a group. It is not unheard of to change groups as you age above that but usually only for those who are already close to the next level by the time they reach maturity."

"So if I was a mature adult it would be classed as a Master then?" he asked.

"Exactly." She smiled, "However your put off will increase and decrease as you are still a child."

"Why do you think his scar came after the killing curse?" Remus asked.

"I don't know if I can explain it to you." She shrugged, "Best I can say is that while the killing curse doesn't leave a trace behind it does leave something. It may be best described as a feeling.

"The best healers seem to have a talent for feeling magic." Poppy interjected, "I can to a small extent and that is what has been driving me crazy about Harry's scar."

"I have that ability and the killing curse feels older." She frowned, "Not by a lot but anywhere from moments to a few hours difference."

"Hagrid told me I had the scar when he pulled me out of the house." Harry jumped in.

"Do you think it was a back lash or another person on scene?" Nymphadora was in auror mode looking at the evidence and forming questions.

"At this point it could be either." Andromeda offered helplessly, "I'm sorry I can't tell you more right now. I will begin to research this and see what, if anything, I can come up with. I may need to do more tests in the future."

"You know where I'll be." Harry smiled tightly.

"Andromeda will Harry be ok for an outing tomorrow?" Sirius asked.

"Yes he is fine." She ruffled the boy's hair, "A bit tired right now but nothing a good night of sleep won't fix."

"Can I stay in my dorm?" he asked hopefully.

"No, but I am allowing Mr. Weasley to stay tonight." Poppy grinned as he first rolled his eyes and the brightened with a smile at the prospect of having company.

Soon the Tonks family was leaving and Minerva left to get Ron. Harry was resting while Sirius and Remus sat on either side. Harry finally spoke after a few minutes of quiet, "What kind of outing?"

"How much Christmas shopping have you done?" Sirius asked with a grin.

"None." Harry opened his eyes and looked at his Godfather, "I planned on owl ordering things a few weeks ago but I forgot."

"How can you forget Christmas?" Sirius huffed.

"I've never… celebrated Christmas." Harry struggled to find the words, "The Dursley's never…"

"Included you." Remus understood and his face morphed into a pained grimace.

"Right." Harry sighed, "So will all the kids I study with expect me to have gifts for them?"

"No just your closest friends." Sirius tried to hide his anger at the Dursleys.

"Ok, are both of you taking me?" he asked.

"Yes." Remus answered quickly.

"Great so when I'm buying for Sirius you can stay and he'll stay while I'm shopping for you." Harry finalized his plans.

"But…" Remus was cut off mid thought when three Weasleys came through the door.

"What's all this then?" Poppy asked coming from her office.

"I'm Mr. Weasley." They all chimed together.

"You said Mr. Weasley could come stay tonight with Harry." Ron grinned unrepentantly, "Professor McGonagall told us."

"Very well." She huffed, "But if you make too much noise Mr. Weasley will have to leave. And that means all three of you."

"Thank you." Harry grinned at the woman who was relenting so easily.

It was ten when Remus stood and pulled Sirius with him, "Come on Harry needs his sleep."

"But…" Sirius pouted.

"Do you remember how uncomfortable these beds became in our seventh year?" Remus asked and noted the pout moved from being pointed at him to being pointed at the bed, "Right so we'll just shove off for now and see you in the morning. Don't stay up too late."

"Don't worry." Harry yawned, "I'm about there now."


	9. Chapter 9

Three days later found Harry in the Gryffindor common room with a frown on his face. Before the trio had gotten the chance to leave the castle the day after his meeting with the Tonks family, Dumbledore returned. That put not only a stop to the plans for a shopping trip but Sirius and Remus had to leave without saying goodbye. McGonagall had rushed them out as soon as the headmaster had arrived in Hogsmeade. Luckily he had entered the Hogs Head bar. The bartender, who evidentially didn't care for the headmaster much, quickly called and let someone know. Harry made a note to get to know the man when he reached third year. His idle wondering about that animosity was nothing compared to the aggravation of having to give Sirius a list through McGonagall so he could pick up presents for Harry's friends. He was thinking back over the conversation as he gazed into the common room fire.

_*******Flashback**********_

"Harry, I'm sorry we had to leave so quickly." Sirius grimaced.

"Don't worry about it." He waved him off, "Are you sure you don't mind doing all my shopping?"

"No problem." Sirius agreed, "Remus is insisting I take him with me so I will be forced to get what you ask for."

"Good I was worried." Harry grinned, "For Ron anything from the Chudley Cannons would be great. But don't spend too much because I don't want him to feel bad, he doesn't have a lot of money to spend."

"Ron, Cannons." Sirius' head twisted oddly in the fire. When he turned back he grinned at Harry's confused look, "Remus is making the list I was repeating it to him. Can't make a list in the fire it will burn."

"Right." Harry nodded in understanding, "For Hermione a copy of the book entitled 'Why do they think that, a muggleborns guide to pureblood customs' by Roger Willingford."

"That's an advanced book." He repeated the title back to Remus.

"It will be a breeze for her." Harry waved him off, "She read the complete works of Shakespeare when she was seven."

"Ok, what about Neville?" Sirius asked.

"I'm giving him flying lessons." Harry said, "I could use a nice old broom that goes slow and doesn't tend to drift off. But that's for me because for Hermione's birthday I promised her lessons. We tried on one of the school brooms but that was a disaster and I am not letting either one of them touch my broom."

"I agree, keep your broom safe." Sirius grinned, "What about the twins?"

"They'll be owl ordering some potion ingredients and I'm going to pay for them." Harry grinned, "They're for pranks that they will promise not to use on me."

"Ok." Sirius laughed, "Anyone else?"

"Remus needs some clothes." Harry frowned, "Take him with you so he can approve of the styles. But no frumpy, old, starving professor clothes."

"I promise to phrase that exactly as you said it." Sirius gained a truly vicious looking grin, "Next."

"I need to get you something but I can't tell you to get it." Harry frowned, "You will just have to wait until it comes in."

"Harry, there is no need for you to buy me anything." His smile softened, "You've already given me more than I could have ever hoped for. You got me free from Azkaban. I got one of my best friends back. The rat is gone and can't hurt us anymore. And you are willingly a part of my life. You can't top that this year."

"But I didn't do it." Harry argued, "McGonagall did."

"She did it because of you." Sirius grinned.

"That's right." McGonagall agreed from behind Harry, "It was only when I saw how much Albus had… messed up with you that I thought to look into it."

"I'm still going to get you something." Harry huffed quietly.

_*********end flashback**********_

He didn't have any idea what he could get for Sirius and he was still determined to get him something. Ron and the twins joined him on the couch and chairs as he brooded.

"What has you in a snit?" Fred asked.

"I don't know what to get Sirius for Christmas." He frowned harder, "And he isn't helping. He says I've given him enough this year getting him free and all that. But I didn't do it."

"Make him something." Ron threw out, "That's what I do for mum and dad. I can't buy them anything really useful and they always tell me how much they love something I've made."

"They put our stuff on the mantle and around the house." George added, "Like the mug Ron made with Bills help a few years ago. Mum uses every morning for her tea even though it's lopsided."

"Adults love that kind of thing." Fred added, "It really is the thought that counts."

"Great so now I need to make something." Harry huffed, "I have no idea what to make."

"Well Bill helped us make a picture frame for our first try." George shrugged, "It was made of paper and mum ended up putting a picture in it and then put the frame we made into a nice one to protect the whole thing."

"How do I make one?" Harry asked finally getting excited.

"It's easy." Ron ran up the stairs and came back with his book bag and pulled out some parchment.

Harry looked critically at the square frame that he had decorated with different colors of ink. He even drew a picture of Sirius in his dog form and a really rough drawing of himself. Next Fred tapped it with his wand and the boy and dog on the frame began to play.

"That's cool." Harry grinned, "I think he'll like that."

"He'll love it." George agreed, "I've got a box you can put it in."

On Boxing Day Harry got a surprise. Dumbledore had another round of meetings and was gone from the castle. Therefore Sirius and Remus returned. Harry found out when he was pulled into a bear hug by his Godfather at breakfast.

"Happy Christmas Harry!" Sirius finally let him go, "I loved it."

"Knew it." Fred and George gave each other a high five.

"Thanks for the idea." Harry grinned at them, "Happy Christmas to you guys too. Nice clothes Remus."

"You shouldn't have." Remus gave him a hug, "But at least yours I can wear in public."

"You can wear the shirt I got you out in public too." Sirius pouted.

"It has a naked woman on it." Remus looked mortified, "I can't wear that."

"Can we see it?" Fred asked hopefully.

"No." Remus shut them down quickly.

It was a few hours before Harry could get Remus and Sirius alone, "Did you guys send me something that was my dad's?"

"No, why?" Sirius asked.

Harry produced a note followed by a silvery cloth. Sirus' eyes grew wide as he gently took the cloak and ran his hands over it. Remus reached for it but stopped short and pulled Sirius into a hug instead as tears began to roll down his face. Harry stayed silent for as long as he could.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"This was indeed your fathers." Remus finally spoke, "I don't know who had it but he shouldn't have let it go easily."

"Albus." Sirius choked out, "Albus borrowed it he was supposed to bring it back before they went into hiding but he had an emergency ICW meeting and we couldn't wait for him. He… he said he sent it to them via owl. I thought it had been lost."

"Do you think he did anything to it?" Harry asked.

"I doubt it but it won't hurt to check." Remus lifted his wand and waved it over the cloak, "We already know tracking spells don't work on it. It can't be summoned. Minor spells and jinxs bend around it. Huh…"

He turned the cloak over and began to check the inside. Sirius was looking confused when he asked, "What's up?"

"There is a tracking spell on it." Remus laid it out on the table and pointed to a small piece of cloth stuck onto the edge like a tag on a shirt, "He couldn't spell the cloak so it looks like he spelled this little piece and attached it to the cloak. I'll see if I can remove it."

"Are you removing the spell or the other cloth?" Harry asked.

"I'm going to try and remove the cloth." He explained as he bent over the cloak on the table, "If the tag is gone he can't reapply the spell. Either way I'd keep the cloak on your person all the time."

"If he had the cloak with him would he have lived?" Sirius whispered his question morosely.

"Don't." Harry pulled him into a hug, "What ifs are terrible things to contemplate. They just tie up your mind and heart with hopeless alternatives that will never happen."

"Where did you hear that?" Sirius wondered as he ruffled Harry's hair.

"I read it actually." He pushed the hair back out of his eyes, "One of my other books suggested it as a good source of wisdom and positive thoughts. It has a bunch of stuff like that. I've not found one thing in the book that doesn't make sense."

"I'd like to read it sometime." Remus said as he sat back and held the small cloth in his hand, "Got it."

"Now what do we do with it?" Sirius asked.

"Well it's a short range tracker. No more than fifteen feet." Remus suggested, "For now put it on the foot of your bed behind your trunk. That way he'll think you're leaving the cloak in your trunk."

"On a more positive note Andy is coming by tomorrow." Sirius sat up and plastered a grin on his face, "She has something she wants to try."

The next morning the three of them were in the hospital with Madam Pomfrey and Andromeda Tonks. Her husband and daughter were absent this time. She directed Harry to sit on the bed before starting the explanation.

"This is called a soul crystal." She held up a clear stone, "Healers use them to pull wraiths that are in possession of a body that they don't belong in. The host soul is perfectly safe."

"My soul is the host soul right?" Harry made sure.

"Yes. What we need to do is lay this on your scar and recite a chant." She explained, "If there is no wraith or soul then nothing will happen."

With approvals all around Harry stretched out on the bed and Andromeda placed the crystal on his forehead. A few minutes later she began to chant. At first nothing seemed to happen and Harry closed his eyes and relaxed.

"Is it just me or is the rock slightly colored now?" Remus asked.

"Is it working then?" Sirius asked.

Andromeda nodded but didn't stop her chant. Harry opened his eyes and tried to look but was stopped by a gentle hand from Remus. Sighing he closed his eyes and waited until they were finished.

"Ow." He muttered nearly an hour later, "That hurt."

"Sorry pup." Sirius rubbed his arm, "I think it's almost over. Yes Andy is nodding her head, almost done. You've done such a good job."

Andromeda sagged and began to drop only for Remus to jump up and catch her. He set her down gently in a chair. Poppy made her drink a vial of potion that had steam coming out of her ears. Harry looked a bit shocked but Remus explained.

"Pepper up potion."

"Siri take the stone from his head and don't drop it." Andromeda instructed, "Give it to Poppy."

Poppy placed it on a tray table from the next bed and moved it closer so Andromeda could inspect it. Poppy ordered them lunch while they were waiting for her to finish.

"Eat first." Poppy chastised the healer as she began to speak, "You'll need your strength."

"It's not a wraith." She explained when she had finished eating, "It is a portion of a soul."

"Voldemort?" Sirius asked glaring at the stone.

"I believe so but don't break the stone or he'll be free to jump into someone else." She knew he wanted to see it destroyed.

"How do you kill it?" he asked, "Will throwing it through the veil work?"

"That is how we normally take care of a wraith." She agreed, "However since this is not a wraith but a soul piece I'm going to have to investigate."

"Why did he put a piece of his soul in me?" Harry finally voiced his question.

"I doubt he did it on purpose." She remarked, "Odds are this isn't the only piece."

"What?" the three other adults gasped.

"It's called a horcrux." Andromeda explained, "My current working theory is that he made a few horcruxes and when Harry did whatever he did it destroyed Voldemort's body and a piece of his torn soul fell off."

"How many did he make?" Harry asked.

"That is the difficult part." Andromeda sighed, "There is no way to know. Unless he tells us or we find someone who knows."

"What does a horcrux do?" Sirius asked.

"It keeps him alive." Remus was the Defense expert, "We could kill his body but until all the horcrux pieces are gone his soul won't pass on. I bet Harry destroyed his body and the rest pf his soul fled and hid until one of his followers comes for him."

"I would have thought Malfoy would have done that already." Sirius said thoughtfully.

"I doubt they knew he had made one let alone several." Andromeda pointed out, "Even the pure blood elite would find the creation of one of those horrific."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"They are the worst of dark magics." Remus explained, "Even the darkest text in this school says something like the horcrux is an abomination in every way and they won't even theorize anything more."

"That sounds like Ron's description of Voldemort." Harry murmured, "So how will we know when we have all the pieces? When he dies and stays dead?"

"That is a very good question Harry." Andromeda replied, "One which I will be spending a good deal of time trying to answer."

"Me too." Remus reassured the boy.

"I'll help too." Sirius added with a fake smile, "We'll start in the Black family library."

"Can you?" she asked slightly breathless.

"Father never changed his will." Sirius frowned, "I inherited everything."

"Still I doubt I'll be allowed." She sagged.

"You'll be allowed as soon as I restore you to the family." Sirius stated, "I'll be removing Narcissa and Bellatrix."

"Can you wait on Mrs. Malfoy?" Harry asked, "I have a plan in motion and she needs to stay a Black for now."

"She isn't marked." Andromeda pointed out, "You can still remove Bella for her mark."

"I'd like to hear about this plan." Sirius looked sternly at his Godson.

"It's nothing bad." Harry assured Sirius, "It's got to do with her son not turning into a death eater. He won't have that option if she isn't a Black."

"Are you trying to talk him around?" Sirius asked.

"I can't really talk about it yet." He shifted slightly on the bed, "Not all of the secrets I'm keeping are my own."

That evening Harry was suffering from a bout of insomnia. He climbed out of his bed and stuck his feet in a pair of slippers and grabbed his invisibility cloak. He made his way out of the portrait and down to the library. He decided to test the newest skill taught to him by the twins and tried to pick the lock on the restricted section. He didn't get far when he heard Filch's cat meowing outside the library door. He quickly hurried back toward the door and kept to the edge so he wouldn't be detected. Filch pushed open the door and entered, Harry slipped out before the door closed on its own. He tried to creep back to his dorm but the argument taking place just around the corner stopped him. He was ready to just sit it out when he heard Filch's voice join in.

"The lock on the restricted section of the library has been messed with." He grumbled, "Someone needs to reset it. If it was one of the nasty Weasley twins they couldn't have gotten back to the common room yet." Harry hurried into the room he was near.

"I'll reset the lock." Snape's voice was clearly approaching, "Filch check the halls. And you don't forget our talk."

"I…I…I w..won…won't." the stuttering voice of the DA professor replied.

Harry shut the door as quietly as possible and moved away from the area in case Snape had heard. Looking around the room he found it suspiciously bare. He had entered plenty of abandoned classrooms while he explored the castle and every one had been dusty and cluttered with unused desks. This one had a lot of dust but it was empty except for an ornate mirror in the center of the room. He approached it cautiously and found his reflection even though he was covered by the cloak. However he nearly jumped a mile when Sirius and Remus stepped into the mirror too.

"Sirius what are you doing here?" he whispered harshly. Sirius didn't answer but two more people stepped into the mirror. Harry's shock made him fall on his backside, "Mum? Dad?"

The group smiled and nodded leaving Harry even more confused. The way he was sitting on the floor he should have been at the same place that Sirius' knee was. He felt the air around him and nobody was there.

"A lying mirror?" Harry asked himself but then answered his own question, "No not a lie, maybe a wish." He looked over the mirror and found strange words etched into the wood. "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. I wonder what language that is in."

He read the words several times trying to memorize them when he remembered he had slipped the homework he had been working on into his pocket before he left. He smiled when he found the quill still folded inside. He wet the tip on his tongue and hoped there was enough ink to write out the sentence.


	10. Chapter 10

"Not a language I recognize." Hermione looked carefully, "You say you found this on a mirror?"

Harry had waited until she returned from the holiday to get his question answered. He was sure she would know, "Yes on a mirror, any idea what language?"

"I would try writing it backwards." She shrugged, "Mirror image and all."

"Ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo urhe arts desire." Harry wrote it out backwards.

"Still nothing I recognize." Hermione studied the writing, "Except the last words are arts desire."

"Why are you discussing your heart's desire with Hermione?" George flopped down on the couch beside Harry, "Shouldn't that still be Ron's job at this age?"

"Brilliant George." Hermione grabbed the quill from Harry and marked back from the word desire until the slip of paper read I/show /no t/yo ur/fac e/bu t/yo ur/he arts /desire, "The words are English just miss spaced.

"I show not your face but your heart's desire." Harry read, "That explains it then."

"What did you see?" Hermione whispered.

"My parents, Sirius and Remus." Harry tried to grin but it came out more as a grimace, "I saw my family."

"Did you get to see the two of them at all during the holiday?" she asked.

"Yes, a few days." Harry shrugged, "They were only here when Dumbledore left. We found out a few more very important things but I've been told not to discuss anything."

"But what if we could help?" she asked, "I could go to the library…"

"Remus already knows a bit about this subject. He studied it for his Defense Mastery." Harry smiled at her eagerness, "He already knows anything this library has. They are searching some family libraries, pureblood ones. We can't leave school and help."

"Why don't they get him to teach here then?" Fred had joined them the same time that George had.

"He doesn't have his mastery yet." Harry looked a bit confused, "Something is holding him back but I don't know what it is yet."

The first years continued to meet in the library throughout the winter. Mid February was the date his next quidditch match was played and he beat Cho Change as easily as he had the Slytherin's seeker. Sunday afternoon when the first year group entered the library the Ravenclaws congratulated Harry on winning though it was not very heartfelt.

"Told you so." Millicent was the first to point it out.

"But you're happier this time right?" Ron asked the Slytherin girl.

"Yes, but only because we already beat them and this puts us in a steady second place." She shrugged.

"Diggory is onto you." Susan grinned cheekily, "So you won't be winning so easily next time."

"I didn't call either game easy." Harry huffed indignantly, "I worked hard both games. I got lucky turns both games. Eventually the luck is going to run out."

"That's when the skill kicks in." Ron slapped him on the back, "Tell me I'm right Neville."

"You're right." Neville piped up, "Not sure what you're right about though."

The group as one chuckled quietly until Minerva appeared, "Harry, come with me please."

"Again?" Padma sighed, "Just when I was going to ask a question."

"What question?" Harry stopped and turned toward her.

"Go on, I'll just ask the group." She waved him off.

Harry caught up with Minerva at the door, "What's going on?"

"You are going to be given your private viewing of the will." She smiled, "Unfortunately Albus is at the ICW and can't be here so I'm going with you and you may have any other adults you wish to aid you in any decisions that need to be made."

"Remus, Sirius and Madam Bones." He stated quickly, "Where is this going to be?"

"In my office." She nodded, "I took the liberty of inviting those three. Do you want me to stay or leave?"

"Stay." Harry stated emphatically, "I need all the advice I can get."

The two of them entered her office and found all the people he had wanted plus one, "Harry this is Laurence Liggit. He's head of the Department for Inheritance."

"Mr. Liggit." Harry reached out and shook his hand.

"My pleasure Mr. Potter." He smiled slightly, "Please allow me to express my condolences."

"Thank you Mr. Liggit." Harry accepted them with a small smile, "What do we do now?"

"First are the adults here with your permission?" he asked.

"Yes sir." He replied.

"Is there anyone else you would like?" was his next question.

"No sir." Harry took a seat that McGonagall pointed him to. It was between Sirius and Remus.

"Several people mentioned in their will are not here. If they are not here for this reading they will have to wait until it has been unsealed." Laurence sat across from him.

"Who else?" Sirius asked for him.

At Harry's nod the man recounted the names, "Rebeus Hagrid, Filius Flitwick, Severus Snape and Peter Pettigrew."

"Pettigrew is dead." Amelia offered, "What of the others Harry?"

"Hagrid and Professor Flitwick are fine." He worried his lip, "Snape I'm unsure about. If my dad is throwing some last minute digs it would be better for him to not be here, however if it's an apology than it may help me."

"I can't tell you exactly what his allotment is but I can say that I think he will like it." Laurence advised.

"Professor?" Harry looked to McGonagall.

"I would suggest letting him decide." She offered at his nod she went to the fireplace.

"Are you sure pup?" Sirius asked.

"As sure as I am about anything." Harry shrugged, "If I didn't offer he would be angry that I held if from him, if I invite him he'll get angry that I'm forcing him to do it. If we just tell him he is named in the will and he can stay if he wants he can't blame me though he'll probably try."

"What do you want Minerva?" Snape entered through the door without knocking.

"Have a seat." She pointed to a chair by Amelia.

"What is going on?" he asked before he moved from the door.

"I'm Laurence Liggit from the Inheritance office." The man explained, "You have been named in this will and it is being offered for you to stay and listen or leave and wait until the will is executed at a later date to be determined by the Wizengamot."

"Lily's will?" he asked gazing at those in the office.

"And James Potter." Liggit explained, "No one here knows the contents of the will yet excepting myself."

"I will not be made a fool of in front of a student." Snape began.

"I do not believe you'll feel the fool if you stay." Liggit interrupted, "At any rate these will know what happens whether you stay or leave."

"You give me little choice then." He huffed as he took the seat beside Amelia.

Twenty minutes later the group sat open mouthed. Snape had received not only an apology from James Potter but together he and Lily had set up a fund for Snape to become a potions researcher if he would leave the Death Eaters. Lily had been sure he wasn't bad just misguided. Remus, Sirius and Pettigrew had each been left a small amount. Minerva and Filius were each given envelops with the thanks from the two Potters but no mention about the contents. Hagrid was given a trip to the British Dragon reserve for a summer internship that would allow him to return in time for school.

"With Mr. Pettigrew gone what would you like to do with his share?" Laurence asked.

"What are my options?" Harry asked.

"Anything you want. You may keep it yourself or give it to someone else." He explained.

"Split it between Sirius and Remus." Harry instructed before anyone could offer advice, "He wanted it given to his friends and his friends will receive it."

"Harry…" Sirius tried to interrupt.

"No, leave it Sirius." Harry turned to him, "It's what Dad wanted. I've got plenty. What do I need to do to get this enacted?"

"Now that it has been unsealed and all benefactors notified we can proceed as you wish." Laurence told him.

"I can have your guardianship changed over as soon as I get back to the ministry." Amelia explained, "If you don't wish to argue any of the points Gringotts will be notified to move the monies."

"I have no arguments." Harry smiled.

Later that evening Harry pulled out his book. He had gained another couple of achievements since he had last looked. Dumbledore had increased his achievements by one and his failures by three, Riddle's achievements hadn't changed nor had his failures. Flipping through the book he stopped on Lucius Malfoy. It was with some trepidation that he watched the man's failures climb by one. The slight shiver that it caused him was for the fact that the man was still playing the game. If that man ever got another accomplishment it was sure to be bad news for the light side of the war.

War was not a word he used lightly. He was one of the few in the world who knew they were fighting a war even if the battles were kept to the political field for now. Voldemort wasn't dead, just laying low, waiting for the opportunity to attack. For now all he could do was prepare and watch the book for them to get accomplishments.

It was a few days before Dumbledore returned and when he did he appeared to be very unhappy. Harry was sure he was unhappy about the guardianship but he didn't ask. He realized he would be finding out shortly when the note was delivered requesting him to go to the office. Harry followed his head of house up to the office and was pleased when she took a seat.

"Thank you Minerva, I'll handle it from here." He tried to dismiss her.

"And I'll be watching you handle it." She stated firmly.

"Minerva this is between just Harry and I. As his guardian I must…" he didn't get very far.

"If you are my guardian why did you ship me off to the Dursleys?" Harry asked, "I know about the blood wards but I am sure you could develop something stronger and more protective if I had been here."

"The blood wards offer more than just a protection during the holiday Harry." Dumbledore quickly forgot that Minerva was present, "It will help the protection your mother gave you last far longer than it otherwise would. If you would just have Poppy stop the trial we could get you back there for the summer."

"NO!" he stood and refused point blank, "No protection is worth that cost. It wasn't for the last ten years and won't be for the next."

"If you would stop acting like a child and be reasonable for a moment I could explain." Dumbledore frown at him.

"I understand your point, I really do." Harry offered resuming his seat, "However, I don't think you are listening to my reasons. First off I am the smallest in my year. Why is that? I'll explain shall I, I've been stuffed in the cupboard under the stairs for ten years. Just like a plant kept in a pot that is too small I didn't grow to my potential. Second, injuries, I have sustained more than twenty broken bones in the last ten years. That is more than two per year sir. How many broken bones did you have in the last ten years?"

"Now Harry." He started.

"Answer the question please." Minerva pushed.

He looked to her remembering her presence at last, "None."

"I didn't think you would." Harry pointed out, "Next how many friends have you been in contact with for the last ten years."

"Far too many to count Harry." Dumbledore answered, "But I really must…"

"I had no contact with anyone friendly." Harry interrupted, "For some reason everyone in Little Whinging believes I am a hooligan. Sometimes I wonder if they believe that solely on the rumors from my relatives or if there is something else at work."

"Surely you aren't accusing me." The man asked truly concerned.

"It could be something you've done without thinking the consequences through." Harry shrugged, "I don't think you are a malicious person but your actions have caused me a lot of unpleasant consequences. Sirius has had the same experience with you so I know you do that kind of thing regularly."

"Is that why you asked to have a new guardian?" Dumbledore asked thoughtfully.

"Yes to some extent. But I want Sirius because that is what my parents wanted. " Harry explained, "Also he is my Godfather and I want to get to know him and Remus better."

"You won't be allowed to be around Remus a lot." Dumbledore pointed out.

"He'll tell me why when he's ready." Harry wouldn't let the man explain any further, "I know something is going on and I'm waiting for him to be comfortable enough to tell me."

"Why do you think that?" Minerva interrupted again.

"He is smart and good enough to get his Mastery in Defense but something is holding him back." Harry explained, "He would be a far better teacher then the one we have but he won't try. I know he isn't lazy so something else is stopping him."

"You are correct." Dumbledore sighed, "Harry I wish you hadn't had the will read but we can't go back now."

"Not that I would want to." Harry nodded in agreement.

"Very well, you will spend your summer at Sirius' house he inherited from his parents." Dumbledore directed.

"Unless he finds somewhere just as safe but not as dark." Harry resisted and stood to leave, "He will decide if it is safe enough or not."

With that Harry left the two professors to their thoughts and conversation. He didn't really want to know what was said after he left. He was well aware that Minerva was unhappy with Dumbledore too. Near the middle of March the twins approached Harry after his defense class.

"You look ill." George observed.

"Just a headache." Harry waved him off, "It will go away as soon as I'm away from Quirrell, it always does."

"I don't think it's the garlic." Fred pulled him into an unused classroom and moved to the far side away from the door.

"We've been studying him, following him when we can." George joined them and began to whisper.

Fred was nodding along, "Last night we saw him leaving the school and this morning Hagrid reported another killed unicorn."

"You think he's doing it?" Harry asked, "But why?"

"We don't know that's why we're bringing it to you." He replied.

"Ok so killing a unicorn and drinking is blood will keep you alive right?" Harry asked.

"Alive but cursed." Fred agreed.

"The only person I think who could benefit from that is Voldemort." Harry pointed out, "So Quirrell is working for him then."

"Or…" George looked at his brother thoughtfully, "If he is just a ghost he could be…"

"Possessing him." Fred nodded along with his brother, "That could account for the smell."

"What?" Harry asked.

"Our brother Bill works for Gringotts in Egypt." George explained, "He has told us about some of the really nasty stuff he's come across."

"One guy got possessed by something in a tomb and they only detected it because of the smell of rot near him." Fred finished, "They removed it but the guy wasn't right for a while."

"So the garlic is covering the smell of rot from the possession." Harry worked out, "Right, now we need to go get that stone."

"Are we going to avoid Granger or talk her into going?" Fred asked.

"Avoidance first." Harry grinned, "Better to ask for forgiveness than permission."

"Now or later?" George asked as they stood and made their way to the door.

"After dinner." He stated, "Put in our appearance for the teachers then off we go. Should we take Ron and Neville or leave them behind?"

"Mum would kill us if we took Ron and he got hurt." Fred offered.

"Right so just us then." Harry agreed.

Later the three of them snuck off much to the ire of his other three friends. Fred slowly opened the door where Fluffy was staying. He stuck his wand into the room and quickly levitated the radio into the room. Luckily they were playing a music marathon that was set to last an hour. The three of them snuck into the room and George levitated the dogs paw off the door and they dropped into the darkness. One plant and a set of keys later they found themselves standing just off a giant chess set.

"I wish Ron was here now." Harry looked over the giants, "How are you guys at chess?"

"Not as good as Ron." George shrugged.

"Well it's a good thing we followed then." Ron's voice called and they turned to find the other three first years standing in the doorway with their arms crossed.

"I can't believe you left without us." Hermione huffed.

"We thought you'd try and talk us out of going." Fred shrugged.

"I would have." She agreed.

"You would have tried." Harry turned back to the chess set, "Ron, are you up for a game?"

"Sure. I'll be the knight." He started.

"Why not just be the king." Neville asked, "That way you won't get hurt unless you lose."

"But I won't be able to see the board if all the pieces are around me." He looked up at the tall pieces some were over eight feet tall.

"Climb up." Harry suggested.

Ron walked over to the king and shrugged before reaching up for a hand hold. He jumped back when the king statue moved, "I think this is going to be wizards chess."

Ron took the hand the king held out and was lifted up to his shoulder. As soon as he was seated one of the pawns from the white side moved. Harry kept glancing at the door during the battle. He was sure the noise would alert the whole school to the events happening underneath. The game was finally won and the group moved to the next obstacle.

"Another twelve foot tall backed up toilet." Neville sighed as they peeked into the room.


	11. Chapter 11

"What?" Fred looked over Neville and into the room, "Oh that."

"What is it?" George asked.

"Troll." Ron sighed, "Again."

"This one looks bigger." Hermione observed.

"Yeah." Neville deadpanned.

"Well Ron this is your specialty." Harry grinned, "You want to have at it?"

"I took care of the last task." He shook his head.

Harry waved his wand and the troll's club lifted up over its head. The troll for his part just looked up in confusion as it was pulled from his hand. After a moment it reached up and tried to pull it back down. Harry waited until it tugged on the club a couple times and then he let the spell go. The troll pulled down hard and the force brought it down and it smacked itself in the face. It wobbled for a moment before it fell over.

"That was interesting." Fred chuckled as they crossed through the room.

Once they entered the next room fire jumped up before and behind them. The twins looked at each other and threw a spell at the flames in front. When nothing happened Harry looked back at them.

"Flame freezing charm." George shrugged.

"That doesn't work on magical flames." Hermione huffed and looked to the table, "Look at this note it's a logic puzzle by Snape."

"Fluffy from Hagrid, Devils Snare from Sprout, keys from Flitwick, chess from McGonagall and a troll from Quirrell." Harry pointed out, "So of course Snape provides potions."

Hermione was looking over the table while he spoke and then picked up a bottle, "Right this one will go forward. There feels like there's only enough for one though."

Harry took it from her quickly and downed the potion. A chill fell over him and he sat the bottle back on the table. Fred picked up the bottle and gave a twirl.

"Still enough for one." He drank it and sat it back.

Each one took the drink and moved to follow Harry into the next room. When the rest arrived they found Harry standing in front of a mirror.

"A mirror?" Fred asked.

"The mirror." Harry pointed to the frame and they realized it was the same mirror that he had run across at Christmas.

"Are you seeing your parents again?" Hermione asked softly.

"No." he sounded confused, "I just see myself. I think he did something to the mirror."

"Why do you think that?" Fred asked.

"I'm just standing there." He shrugged, "Before when I looked Sirius, Remus and my parents just walked in."

"Maybe since you know what it is you need to think about what you want to see." Neville suggested, "Think about getting the stone."

Harry turned back to the mirror and stated, "I want to have the stone to better hide it from Voldemort."

His mirror image winked at him and then reached into his pocket and pulled out a red stone. When he put the stone back Harry felt it enter his own pocket, "You're right Neville. Let's go."

They went back through the obstacles, the troll was still out, and made their way back to the Gryffindor common room. Harry headed up to the dorm alone and put the stone in an old sock and stuck it in the bottom of his trunk. When he returned the twins were causing a ruckus while Hermione, Ron and Neville sat in a quiet corner with a quill and parchment.

"Read this." Hermione handed the note over as Harry approached.

"You have too much information in that one." Harry sighed, "If someone else gets a hold of it I'm screwed."

"Right." Hermione vanished all the ink and began again, "More vague but with hints."

"Just more vague." Harry instructed, "On second thought just tell him I'd like to meet over the summer."

"But why would you all of the sudden want to speak to Nicholas Flamel." She stated, "He'll be suspicious."

"I've got a chocolate card collection and Albus Dumbledore has been my guardian up until recently." Harry pointed out, "It's not that farfetched."

"Maybe you should just have Professor Dumbledore introduce you." Neville suggested.

"I don't think we're on that good of terms." Harry grinned.

"How's this then." Hermione handed over the letter.

"Perfect, thank you for writing it out for me." He patted her back.

"No problem." She grinned, "Your writing is so atrocious that his old eyes probably couldn't read it."

"Ha ha." He stood and stretched, "I need to go send this off."

Mid April there was a new stir at school. Harry and his classmates waited in the defense room for Quirrell to arrive and teach class. The class time was half over when part of the group took off heading for the library. Hermione was the first of that group stating her need to study for the end of year exams, the small group that was left included Harry, Ron and Neville.

"I think we need to tell McGonagall." Harry left the room followed by the rest of the class. The group made their way across the school and reached the Transfiguration classroom in no time. Harry knocked on the door and opened.

"What is it Mr. Potter?" she asked halting her class in the middle of a lecture.

"Sorry to bother you Professor." Harry stated clearly, "We weren't sure who to contact. Professor Quirrell didn't show up for class. We're heading to the library or common rooms until next class. We just thought someone should know."

"Thank you Mr. Potter." She nodded, "I'll look into it."

Harry closed the door and started towards the common room. The rest of the group split and headed in their own directions. Harry noticed that Draco following behind them so he stopped and told Ron and Neville to go on he'd catch up. They agreed with a little confusion but went anyway.

He waited until they were out of sight before he backtracked, "Did you need something?"

"I just wanted to ask a question." Draco whispered, "I heard my mother over Christmas say that my Aunt Andromeda has been returned to the family by Sirius Black. Do you know about it?"

"I do." Harry confirmed.

"She was afraid she was going to be removed." He continued.

"She won't, though your Aunt Bellatrix is not so lucky." He replied.

"Why did… Did he… Why?" Draco stumbled through his question.

"Bellatrix was removed because of her mark." Harry whispered, "You mother is not marked and I ask them to leave her so that if you didn't want to be a death eater you may be able to find a way out through the Black side of the family. I didn't say you didn't want to be only that I was working on you."

"You did that for me?" he asked shocked.

"I did and Sirius agreed." Harry smiled slightly, things were going well, "Andromeda has high hopes for you and your mother. Unfortunately your father is a different matter."

"He is." Draco agreed, "I have to try though."

"Good luck." Harry offered before they split up and went different directions.

Harry met back up with Ron and Neville in time to head to his next class. There was no other news on the missing teacher until lunch time when Dumbledore made the announcement that DADA classes were suspended for the rest of the day. It wasn't until dinner that the news came out.

"Attention." Dumbledore stood, "I have some sad news to impart. This morning the first years reported that Professor Quirrell did not make it to class. This was reported to Professor McGonagall who brought it to my attention. When we could not locate him in his office or rooms we cancelled his classes. Since that time he has been found. I'm sorry to report to you that your Professor passed away last night or this morning. Madam Bones has taken his body to St. Mungo's to find out the cause and time of death. DADA classes are suspended for the rest of the year. However I will be giving the end of year exams that he had set."

Harry glanced over to the twins and George winked at him. Evidentially they knew something. He would have to question them later. He didn't need to worry about that though because the twins drug him, Hermione, Ron and Neville off to an abandoned classroom as soon as dinner was over.

"From what we saw Quirrell bought it down under the trap door." George offered immediately.

"Are you sure it wasn't Fluffy?" Ron asked.

"No he was all in one piece so it wasn't Fluffy." Fred answered, "But they did bring him out that door."

"Nothing else should have killed him." Neville stated.

"Unless you two were right and he got mad when he left." Harry pointed out.

"Who got mad?" Hermione asked bewildered.

"Voldemort." Harry explained, "The twins thought perhaps Voldemort was possessing Quirrell. That's when we went after the stone. I'm pretty sure we don't want him to get that."

"So you think then that he went after the stone and found out it was gone and You Know Who killed him when he left." Hermione brought it all together.

"Exactly." Fred and George said together.

"Makes sense." Harry agreed.

The year was over before they knew it and they were soon on their way home. On the train ride Gryffindor was celebrating winning not only the house cup but the quidditch cup too. It had been a Gryffindor sweep for the first time in ages. Half way through the ride Harry headed to the loo.

"Harry." A whisper caught his attention just before he stepped in.

"Draco." He replied turning to the young boy.

"Have a good summer." He smiled slightly.

"You too." Harry grinned, "I'd write but I don't think it would be comfortable for you. Feel free to write me though."

"You can write." Draco grinned, "Just sign them from a different name."

"What other name can I use?" he asked.

"Blacks all use star names." He pointed out, "Draco and Sirius are just a few. Pick a star name."

"Canis." Harry smiled thinking of Sirius' other form, "Do I need a last name?"

"I thought Amipotier would work." Draco offered.

"Never heard that name before." Harry looked confused.

"Its French, ami is friend and potier is potter." He shrugged, "I just shoved them together."

"I like it." Harry nodded, "But won't your dad wonder where we met?"

"I'm telling him you came at the end of the year to see the difference between Hogwarts and Beaubaxtons." He explained, "I'm telling him you decided to stay at Beaubaxtons."

"That's the French school." Harry remembered reading about it, "Are we conversing in English to improve mine, because I don't know any French."

"That works." He agreed.

Just then someone moved from the next car and headed towards theirs. Draco grimaced and disappeared into the shadows while Harry quickly entered the loo. When he came back out Draco was gone. Harry chuckled at the thought that his secret ally was becoming a secret friend. He wondered how much longer it was going to take before he became less of a secret. Harry made it back to his car and took a seat.

"When do you think it will happen?" Ron was asking.

"When will what happen?" Harry asked as he took a seat.

"We're waiting for the silver trio to appear." Neville offered.

"Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle." Hermione explained, "They started calling us the golden quartet so we're calling them the silver trio."

"That's new." Harry grinned, "Is it the silver quartet when Parkinson is with them?"

"No we don't count her at all." Ron groused.

"Do you know where you're going yet?" Neville asked Harry.

"No. Sirius said we don't have to go to his Mum's house so I'm fine where ever else he wants to go." Harry grinned, "What are your plans?"

"Gran is letting me have a go at the green house." Neville grinned, "My O in Herbology and the extra note from Professor Sprout gave her the push I needed."

"Sounds great." The group agreed quickly.

"My parents are taking me to France." Hermione offered next since she was sitting next to Neville, "We're planning to visit museums and a few lectures."

"Fascinating." Ron didn't sound very fascinated, "We're going to be around the Burrow probably playing quidditch and maybe some swimming."

"Sounds fun." Hermione deadpanned in the same inflection Ron had used when commenting on her holiday plans.

Harry had to laugh at his two friends. He started out with a snicker and when they both turned to glare at him he broke into a full laugh. Neville joined and before long all of them were falling about laughing.

"What's this?" Fred asked as he opened their door.

"Looks like someone left them with a tickle charm on." George added as he looked over Fred's shoulder.

"We're fine." Harry gasped, "Just laughing. Are you planning anything over the holiday?"

"We're always planning things." Fred waved him off.

"Evil things." Percy added as he arrived, "Get your things together we're almost there."

"Yes your prefectness." George saluted Percy then turned to Harry's, "You heard the man clean this mess up."

On the platform things went smoothly. Some families used portkeys or apparition but most of the students slipped out the platform in twos and threes to hide the mass exodus. Ron and Hermione preceded Harry and Neville who were followed by the twins with Percy bringing up the rear. Once in the main terminal Harry got his second glance at the Weasley family. They were standing right beside Sirius and Remus.

"Sirius." Harry moved to the man who pulled him into a hug.

"How are you doing Harry?" he asked.

"Fine." He grinned and moved to hug Remus.

"Hi guys." Sirius moved to greet the Weasley boys.

"Sirius." They all shook his hand.

"Can Harry come over some this summer?" Ron asked.

"We'll see." Sirius patted his head.

"Mum this is Harry, Harry this is Mum and Ginny." Ron introduced.

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Weasley." Harry waved then turned to Ginny, "I've heard a lot of stories about you. I promise I don't believe everything those three say."

Ginny didn't speak but she turned red and grinned. Mrs. Weasley took that time to speak, "It would be our pleasure to have you visit some this summer."

"Thank you." He replied, "I look forward to it."

"Are you ready pup?" Remus asked, "We'd like to get you settled before bed time."

"It's the holiday." Harry argued, "Don't I get to stay up late and sleep till noon?"

"No." Remus scoffed.

"Don't you three get any ideas either." Mrs. Weasley scolded her boys.

"Harry's only teasing Mum." Fred offered.

"He's a right spring chicken in the mornings." George added.

"He's usually dragging us out of bed in time for breakfast." Ron added, "We don't even need to set an alarm any longer."

"I resent being compared to a chicken." Harry glowered.

"You'll get over it." Fred patted his head in a condescending way.

"This is Harry." He heard Hermione's voice behind him and Harry turned to greet her parents.

"Mr. and Mrs. Granger, nice to meet you." He immediately held out a hand.

She followed that introduction with Neville then Ron and the twins. After a round of handshakes and exchanged greetings Hermione and her parents left with Hermione's warning to write her ringing in their ears.

"There is my Gran." Neville waved at her, "Have a good summer everyone."

"You too Neville." They called as he left to meet his Gran.

Soon enough Harry was on his way out of the station with Sirius and Remus. They made their way to a deserted alley where Remus produced a plate.

"Have you ever taken a portkey?" Sirius asked.

"Yes." He nodded, "Madam Pomfrey got one to take me to Hogwarts the first time."

"Good then we can go." Remus nodded.

They all put a finger on the plate and Remus grabbed his trunk. Harry felt the pull, as he looked around he thought he was in the middle of a colorful tornado. It didn't last long and he was soon slammed to the ground painfully, again.

"Ow." He grunted, "Why is it all the wizarding transportation options throw you to the ground when you arrive. Can't I have any dignity at all."

"Wait until you apparate." Sirius grinned.

"Thanks but I'll wait. I've heard some horror stories from the sixth years." He finally started to look around, "Where are we?"

Remus pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to him, "Read this, memorize it and then think about what it says."

Harry did as instructed and was surprised when a house appeared before him. He paused for a moment before asking, "Who is the secret keeper?"

"Minerva." Remus answered, "Albus offered but we didn't think that would make you feel safe. He wasn't happy."

"He'll get over it." Harry huffed, "So where exactly are we?"

They crossed into the property and under the fidelous before Sirius answered, "We aren't far from London. If we were to take my motorbike for a ride we could be a Kings Cross in just over an hour."

"That doesn't account for traffic." Remus added, "He has ways around that."

"Does it fly?" Harry asked to their surprise, "I've had dreams about a flying motorcycle."

"It does." Sirius nodded in shock, "I wonder if it was your imagination that thought it up or if you remember?"

"Who knows?" Harry shrugged, "This place looks nice."

"We have a quidditch pitch in the back and plenty of room to run." Sirius grinned, "It was a muggle house but we've added to it. We had to let the locals think the place burned to the ground so we could put it under the charm. You have your own room and room for guests to stay. I didn't decorate your room I thought you'd like to do that. We don't have a house elf so we'll probably eat out a lot since I really can't cook."

"You are rambling." Remus chuckled.

"I am not." Sirius pouted.

"You are." Harry agreed, "I love this place can we see the inside?"


	12. Chapter 12

Eleven year old Harry was ensconced in his room doing his homework. In truth he had done all his homework in the first few weeks after school was out. But he was not about to let Sirius find out. If Sirius had any idea he would have him at his mother's place cleaning, again. They had gotten all the really dangerous things out before they had taken him in to help clean. Remus opened his door as he was adding a few lines to his potions essay.

"How is it going?"

"Ok." He shrugged, "As well as homework in the summer can go I guess."

"Too bad you didn't get it done earlier." Remus grinned, "Ron has invited you over to play quidditch."

"If I was cleaning I'd be too tired to go anyway." Harry grumbled under his breath but continued writing out his essay.

"What was that?" Remus asked.

"Ron probably doesn't have his homework done yet either." Harry expressed in a voice loud enough for Remus to hear.

"Actually I heard you the first time." He entered the rest of the way and sat on the bed, "Does the cleaning really bother you that much?"

"No." he stopped and looked up at the man, "The place is just so…"

"Dirty, depressing, dark?" he supplied.

"Actually it kind of reminds me of the cupboard." Harry shuddered, "It was all those things too. I **hate** going there."

"You hate it bad enough to do all your homework a second time and miss quidditch at the Weasleys?" he asked.

"I'd do my homework over and over all summer and I'd miss quidditch all next year if I didn't have to go back." He frowned at the door hoping Sirius wasn't anywhere around.

"You hate it almost as much as Sirius does." Remus rubbed his head lightly.

"Really?" Harry sat up looking confused, "But it was his home."

"While his childhood wasn't the same as yours it was, in some ways, just as bad." Remus confirmed, "He ran away from home around his sixteenth birthday. His present from his mother was several minutes under the torture curse. James told me that when Sirius got to his house he was barely standing."

"I didn't know." Harry was feeling quite bad now. He'd only been thinking of himself, "I didn't realize it was such a problem for him to go there too. I better go apologize then."

He began to pick up all his homework and put it all away but Remus stopped him, "He isn't here right now but he'll be home soon."

"I'm sorry I left it to you guys." Harry bowed his head in regret.

"We don't want to make you miserable either." Remus offered, "He knew you'd already done the work so he has decided not to go back."

"How is he going to get rid of it then?" Harry asked.

"Dumbledore wants to use it." Remus frowned, "He had a group last time that stood up to the death eaters. He is starting it again. He wants to use that house because of all the protections."

"Sirius wants to let them use it?" he asked slightly concerned.

"They've agreed to clean it up." Remus grinned, "Sirius decided it was worth it not to have to go back himself or to make you go."

"I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision." Harry confessed and the explained at Remus' look, "I'm not sure I'd choose to let him use it. I might have just burned the place down out of spite."

"I was tempted." Sirius appeared at the door and leaned on the frame.

"I'm sorry." Harry said immediately.

"You must hate the place as much as I do if you're willing to redo all your homework." Sirius shrugged.

"It's just…" he paused not sure whether to finish or not but at when Remus nudged him he finished, "It reminds me of my cupboard."

"Dark and cramped." Sirius nodded.

"And just full of hate." Harry whispered, "I know I'm not really welcome in that house. It doesn't want me there. I'm a vile object that disrupts its magic."

"And here I thought I was the only one who felt that." Sirius entered the room and sat on the bed pulling Harry into a hug, "Maybe it's because you are my heir."

"Do you really feel that?" Remus asked.

Sirius and Harry nodded but Sirius was the one who spoke, "It's like my mother is the house. It doesn't like anyone, but it abhors me."

"I don't feel like that at all." Remus hummed, "It's just a dark and dirty old house."

"Maybe it's because Moony is meaner than the house." Harry grinned at his suggestion. The two had told Harry about Moony the first week he was out of school. When they had asked him how he felt about it he'd shrugged and said, "So he goes furry once a month, big deal. He's fine the rest of the time." Sirius had laughed for about ten minutes before explaining that his father had said almost the same thing. Remus for his part had only looked relieved.

"Moony is meaner; however it is more than likely a spell my dear mother put on the house." Sirius smiled at Harry's suggestion, "She couldn't disown me and father wouldn't do it. I wouldn't put it past her to make me and all my descendants feel uncomfortable in the place."

"It works." Harry shuddered, "It works really well. Did Ron really want me to come play quidditch?"

"Yes but you can't go." Remus patted his back, "Punishment."

"I get it." Harry nodded, "Do I still have to redo all my homework?"

"I'll read it and make you correct it." Remus held out a hand and Harry moved to get the work that was already done.

Twenty minutes later he was again writing his potions essay. After he finished it he pulled out the hidden letter to Draco and continued writing. He didn't like lying to Sirius and Remus and he didn't think they would understand him writing a letter to Draco Malfoy and signing it Canis Amipotier. He'd rather not tell them then lie about it. He had never felt guilty lying to the Dursleys, probably because they lied so much themselves. Then again it never mattered what he said to the Dursleys he had been punished anyway.

After he sent off the letter with Sirius' new owl Harry tiptoed to his door and listened for the two adults and could hear them talking in the kitchen. He slipped back to his bed and pulled his Game book out from under the mattress. He quickly opened it up to the back and glanced over a few of the people to see what was happening with everyone. Comparing it to the list he had started keeping Dumbledore had increased his achievements by two and his failures by seven. Harry's eyebrows rose at that. Riddle had stayed the same as had Lucius. And the new guy named Carmichael had finally achieved a goal so he was probably getting to see the names and stats now.

One thing he was relieved to see was that Dumbledore still hadn't pulled his book from his vault so he didn't know Harry was in the game. He dreaded when that would come about. He had just put his book away when someone spoke.

"Mister Harry Potter Sir must not return to Hogwarts."

"Aaaahhhh." He yelled and fell off his bed. He scrambled around and looked up to find a house elf standing on his bed looking down at him.

Remus and Sirius popped into his room and saw the elf just before he popped away.

"What happened?" Sirius asked as he checked Harry over.

"I was reading a book and it just started talking." Harry pulled himself to his feet, "I didn't know anyone was in the room and it gave me a fright."

"What did it say?" Remus asked.

"Told me I must not return to Hogwarts." Harry shrugged, "Then you arrived and it left."

"Did it have anything on the front of its cover?" Sirius asked.

"What?" Remus questioned him.

"Many of the old families have a house crest on their elves coverings." Sirius pointed out, "Like Hogwarts."

"This one didn't have any kind of crest." Harry shook his head, "It had that dirty pillow case and had its hands wrapped up like they'd been injured.

"It could be any of the old pureblood families then." Sirius huffed, "Potter elves had a crest but ours didn't. If it comes back try to get as much information out of it as possible, but don't let it touch you. It's not supposed to be within house elves capabilities to kidnap people but I'd rather not take chances with your safety."

"You think it will come back?" Harry asked.

"Yes, it looked like we scared if off before it was able to convey its message." Remus agreed.

"On a lighter note." Sirius offered somewhat sarcastically, "Dumbledore is coming by this evening for a chat."

"Where am I going?" Harry asked knowing they wouldn't subject him to the old man.

"Neville's." Remus grinned, "Augusta isn't a big fan of his either. He was the secret keeper for Frank and Alice and told them it was ok to leave and then they got attacked. None of us believe he did it on purpose but still the coincidence is there."

"I don't want any part of his 'Greater Good'." Harry shuddered, "When do I go?"

"He said he would come over after dinner so we're sending you after lunch." Sirius explained, "You get to stay the night."

"Pack an overnight bag and then come down and eat." Remus instructed.

Within the hour Harry was being greeted by Neville and his grandmother. Neville's gran was very stiff and formal but Harry had read in one of his extra books how to formally greet a witch of the older generation. He bowed over their clasped hands before standing and looking her in the eye.

"Madam Longbottom, what a pleasure it is to make you acquaintance." He held himself stiffly.

"And you as well Mr. Potter." She smiled, "See Neville you aren't the only one being made to have manners."

"Hi Harry." Neville grinned as he rolled his eyes at his gran.

"Hey Nev." He grinned back all formality dropped, "How's the green house?"

"Great do you want to see it?" he asked.

"Sure." Harry responded then turned to Augusta with a slight bow, "If you would excuse us Madam."

"Yes go play in the dirt by all means." She chuckled, "I do appreciate your politeness, well done."

"Thank you." Harry nodded and followed Neville out the door.

"Gran was impressed." Neville said once they were out of hearing range, "You'll be invited back."

"Thanks, how has your summer been?" they continued out to the green house where they spent the afternoon.

"Master, Mistress wants you to be cleaning up before dinner." An elf popped in as they were putting away the tools.

"Thanks Mipsy." Neville finished what he was doing before he turned around, "Please let Gran know we'll be right in."

"Yes Master." She popped away.

"I've never had so much fun doing this kind of work before." Harry washed the dirt off in the sink next to his friend, "I always hated doing it at my relatives."

"What about at Hogwarts?" he asked.

"That was school." Harry grimaced.

"What kind of plants did you work with at your relatives?" he asked.

"Roses and stuff." He shrugged, "It was all outside and I always got sunburned."

"Not fun." Neville grimaced, "Are you looking forward to second year?"

"Yes I guess." Harry shrugged, "Seeing everyone will be great, but I'm going to miss Sirius and Remus and I don't really want to see the Headmaster. I just can't afford to ignore him completely."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Voldemort isn't dead." Neville flinched as Harry spoke the name but didn't say anything, "Dumbledore leads the light."

"Gran says what we need is a third option." Neville, to his credit, didn't stutter after hearing the name, he was getting better Harry thought.

"A neutral isn't going to fight." Harry shrugged.

"Not neutral." He began, "Gran says Dumbledore isn't really as light as he wants us all to believe so we need a light option."

Harry hummed at him but didn't respond. This gave him something to think about. Leading a third option in the war would definitely give him a start at winning the game, but would it give his game away? He would have to think on that for some time before he could decide. However if he really thought about it he was already the third option. He had Sirius and Remus on his side. As well as McGonagall, Pomfrey, Ron and the Twins, Neville and of course Hermione was a big asset. Draco could really be a spot of help if he heard anything. None of them were following Dumbledore blindly any longer. But did he have enough to be an option? After dinner the two of them played chess and discussed homework and school before they went to bed. It was just as they were tucking themselves in that a small pop gained their attention.

"You again." Harry sat up and Neville followed suit.

"Harry Potter must not return to Hogwarts." The small elf whispered harshly.

"Why not." Harry asked.

"Terrible things be happening." It wrung its ears, "Yous needs to stay safe."

"What things?" Neville asked.

"Terrible." The elf shook.

"What's your name?" Harry tried a different tactic.

"Dobby." He answered, "Dobby the house elf."

"Who do you belong to?" he asked.

"I can't be saying." He replied.

"Did they send you with the message?" Harry asked, while Neville looked confused.

"No Sir!" Dobby cried, "I be having to slam my hands in the oven for telling."

"Can you sit with us and talk?" Harry encouraged him by patting the side of his bed.

The elf promptly burst into tears, "I be hearing of yous greatness but Dobby didn't know you were this great." Harry raised his eyebrows at Neville but before either could talk Dobby continued, "Never has a wizard asked Dobby to sit with him like an equal."

"You can't have met many decent wizards then." Harry observed.

"No." the elf answered then his eyes widened and he began to bang his head on the bed post, "Bad Dobby."

They talked for several more minutes but were unable to get anything more. Finally Harry told the elf, "I have to return. My guardian will make me. I'll just have to be super careful so I don't get hurt."

"Dobby could help you. If yous were hurt you couldn't go to school." He raised his hands at Harry.

"That wouldn't work either." Harry quickly stated, "They'd just put me in the hospital wing at Hogwarts. That's what they did last summer."

The elf looked dejected for a moment before his ears perked up, "Dobby has to leave but Dobby be thinking of ways to keep you home."

"Great." Harry sighed after the elf left.

"What are you going to do?" Neville asked concerned.

"I'll just have to tell Sirius and Remus about it." Harry explained, "They already saw him once."

"That's good otherwise it might be hard to believe." Neville chuckled, "Who knew that unhappy house elves could nearly tell the family secrets."

It was nearing Harry's birthday when he finally got a response to the letter he had sent earlier in the spring. Nicholas Flamel was agreeing to meet with him the next day. He didn't have much time but would spare some for Harry. The Flamels chose a small café in Holyhead and Harry was rather excited the day they were to meet the pair.

"Harry, tell me again why you're so nervous?" Sirius asked the seventh time Harry asked for the time.

"It's Nicholas Flamel." He pointed out, "Isn't that enough?"

"Just some old guy." Sirius huffed but stopped when Remus smacked him on the back of the head.

"Stop teasing." He ordered, "Harry it's time to go. Do have your chocolate frog card?"

"Right here." He patted his pocket and felt not only the card but the stone too.

When the trio arrived at the café the two adults were shocked when Harry asked for a vow that he was who he was claiming to be.

"I swear on my magic I am the person of Nicholas Flamel." He declared and lit his wand just above the table top to show he had told the truth.

Harry calmly pulled the two items out of his pocket and placed the stone in Nicholas' hand that was stretched out in an offer of a hand shake for Harry.

The older gentleman looked at the item in his hand then at Harry, "How did you get your hands on that?"

"Dumbledore had it hidden in the school as a trap for Voldemort." He whispered, "I got there first. I have not used it nor do I want it. My only goal was to get it back to you."

Nicholas slipped the stone into his pocket and reached back and shook Harry's hand, "Thank you. I now understand that vow."

"You're welcome." Harry smiled, "Now will you sign my chocolate frog card?"

They chatted for several hours and left with a firm promise to write each other. Harry's birthday arrived with a bang from the twins who let off fireworks as soon as they arrived. Actually it was technically still Neville's birthday but since they were having a joint party he counted it as his. All their friends came and they had plenty of fun, games and cake. As far as birthday parties went Harry thought it was the best one he had ever attended. Of course it was the only one he had ever attended so he didn't have a lot to go on.


	13. Chapter 13

The summer was eventful but even then Harry could get surprised, it happened near the end of August as they were in Diagon Alley getting their school things. Unfortunately it looked like the Headmaster had managed to find a worse defense teacher than Quirrell. Gildaroy Lockhart was a vain, flashy show off without a lick of sense and even less magic.

Harry had taken one look at the man and then the book list and had whispered to Sirius, "If he really did anything these books say he did I'll eat my pointed hat."

Sirius snickered but at that moment Harry was spotted and Lockhart headed his way. Before the man could reach him he found his way blocked by Sirius, "Can I help you."

"No, I was just going to help young Harry here get his picture in the paper." Lockhart tried to step around him.

"He doesn't want his picture in the paper." Sirius growled in warning.

"Everyone wants to be famous and to get the chance to pose with me is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the lad." Lockhart tried to get around him again.

"Not something I want to happen at all in my lifetime." Harry said just loud enough for those around to hear.

"Just go back to your book signing." Sirius stood firm and Arthur joined him as did the twins.

"Well, I'll just go back shall I." he turned tail and stepped back behind his table.

Harry had turned around as they were getting ready to leave and that's when he saw Lucius and Draco Malfoy. Draco had his hands full of the books he was buying. Harry almost fell over when Dobby popped up and took the books before popping away. A few moments later they left the book store. Harry stepped to the door and watched them go.

"Who are you watching?" Sirius whispered in his ear.

"Malfoy." Harry responded, "I know who the elf belongs to now."

"Really?" Sirius looked at him in surprise, "Lucius is sending his elf to warn you about something?"

"No, remember he doesn't have his master's permission." Harry reminded him, "That means Lucy is up to something."

"That I can believe." Sirius let out his bark like laugh before he pushed the door open, "I think we're finished getting books, what's next?" They left the Weasleys in the store with a promise to meet up for dinner.

Before he knew it Harry found himself in Kings Cross. Most of the others had already crossed onto the platform. Only Harry, Sirius and Remus were left with Harry's trunk safely shrunk in his pocket. Harry quickly walked towards the gate but got a shock when he hit the wall instead.

"Ow." He rubbed his nose where it had hit and then placed his hand on the wall. It was solid and he turned back to the two men, "What happened?"

"Don't know?" Sirius reached up like he was leaning on the wall but it still didn't give, "We've got some time let's go to the bathroom and clean the smudge on your face."

"I have a smudge on my face?" He asked wondering how long that had been there.

"From your face plant." Remus explained, "We'll just pop over when you're fixed."

Harry nodded and followed them into the loo. Thankfully it was empty and he was soon on the train in a compartment with Ron, Neville, Hermione, Ginny, Luna and the twins. He had met both Ginny and Luna during his visits to the Burrow over the summer. The twins chatted until the train got moving then they left to find some of their other friends. After they were gone Ron tried to get rid of Ginny.

"Why don't you two go find a compartment of your own." He tried to order his sister.

"Stop it Ronald." Hermione jumped in, "I want them to stay."

"But…" he began.

"Leave them be Ron." Harry added, "They aren't hurting anything and you know I like collecting friends. This is just the first of the new ones. We're branching out to third years too."

"But…" he tried again.

"I'll tell Millicent." He pointed to his friend, "You remember what her sister did to her."

"You can stay." Ron said hurriedly, "Just don't tell her."

"Why?" Ginny asked.

"Her sister ignored her all year." Hermione explained, "If she hadn't made friends in Harry's group she would only have Tracy and Daphne for friends. She told those with younger siblings last year that if they ignored their siblings it would be at their own peril."

"Their own peril?" she asked.

"Millicent is a rather… robust Slytherin girl." Harry explained.

"Robust!" Ron cried, "She's bigger than me!"

"He was being polite." Hermione chastised, "You should try it some time."

"Is it more polite to say I reach her nose?" Ron asked bewildered.

Hermione grinned when she realized he wasn't talking about her weight but her height, "Yes it's more polite, that way people don't think you're saying something rude."

"Anyway!" Harry stressed, "She was threating to beat them up if they ignored their younger siblings."

"I like her already." Ginny grinned.

Harry laughed and was glad to see Ginny wasn't getting any of the shyness back. The first time he had met her she couldn't speak at all and it didn't improved with the subsequent visits either. It wasn't until he had joined the twins in a small prank on her that she had come out of her shell.

_***** Prank *****_

"**Are you sure this will work?" Harry asked looking dubiously at the twins.**

"**Sure, when we prank her she always gets us back." Fred explained.**

"**So if you help us she'll see you're not some knight in shining armor." George added.**

"**Then she'll be able to talk and not squeak when you're around." Fred finished.**

"**I hope so." He sighed, "It's annoying not to be able to get to know her."**

"**A collector of people like you would find that annoying." George snickered.**

"**I don't collect people." Harry huffed.**

"**Yes you do." Ron interjected, "You collected most of first year."**

"**I made friends I didn't collect them." Harry tried again.**

"**Same thing." Fred snickered, "Now let's collect Ginny."**

"**Fine." Harry gave in, "What is this going to do?"**

"**This is a Bunny Bonbon." Fred held up a small chocolate candy, "She eats this and will grow bunny ears and a tail."**

"**And it will go away?" Harry asked.**

"**After about ten minutes." George agreed, "In the meantime she'll be hopping mad."**

"**And that's a good thing?" Harry was back to being dubious of their actions.**

"**Sure." Fred nodded, "Now she won't take anything to eat from us so you'll have to do it."**

"**You guys made these?" he asked.**

"**Yep, one of our first." Fred grinned proudly.**

**Before he could ask George added, "The next generation will be more of the whole bunny or whatever animal we choose to use."**

"**Ok, here goes nothing." He shook his head not sure at all that this was a good idea, "Ginny, do you want a piece of chocolate?"**

"**Sure." She squeaked.**

**After she swallowed it her ears grew into those of a grey rabbit. Harry couldn't stop himself from making an observation aloud, "Wow it worked."**

"**What?" Ginny asked confused.**

"**Gave you log ears." Harry began to back away as her look turned from confusion to anger, "It was the twin's idea."**

"**And you listened to them?" She shrieked.**

"**I knew this was a bad idea." He mumbled as he turned and ran from the kitchen out towards the orchard.**

**Ginny hopped after him and reached the orchard after several minutes, "When I find you I am so going to make you pay."**

"**Will you be my friend after I pay?" He asked hiding behind a tree.**

"**What?" she asked shocked.**

"**I want to be your friend." He peeked out and saw her a little way off looking the other way, "You were being too shy and the twins said this would help you." **

"**Harry, let me give you a little advice." She poked her head around his tree, "Never listen to the twins when it comes to anything to do with me."**

"**Ok." He agreed with a slight squeak, "Can we be friends now?"**

"**After I tickle you until you pass out." She grinned evilly and Harry took off running again.**

_*****End Prank*****_

She had managed to tackle him and began to tickle him but Fred and George arrived and saved him. Of course that meant she took it out on them instead. It was rather funny when it happened to someone else. It had added to the fun when she had snuck her mother's wand and turned both of them pink. Mrs. Weasley just told them to quit testing pranks on themselves. She didn't even listen when they tried to pin it on Ginny. But he now knew not to prank Ginny. He just wished the game book would offer some advice on girls. The sorting went off without a hitch and his entire group settled into Gryffindor tower.

"Luna, you're sorting took a rather long time." Ginny observed as they all sat on the couch, "Did you have a nice visit with the hat?"

"Actually I was arguing with him." Luna stated, "He wanted to put me into Ravenclaw and I wanted to be with my friends."

"It wanted to put me in another house too." Harry grinned at her, "I told him the same."

"What house did it want to put you in?" Hermione asked.

"It said I could have gone to any of them." Harry shrugged.

"Just call him Harry Hogwarts." Neville snickered.

"Shut up." Harry swatted at him but laughed all the same, "If I'd have known you would turn out so mean I might have gone to Hufflepuff."

"I was fine until the adoption." Neville grinned, "I got your sarcastic genes."

"You missed out on the hair though." Harry laughed.

"What adoption?" Ginny asked baffled.

"It was a joke last year." Harry explained their findings on the dark wizards.

A few days later Harry quietly walked to the empty classroom where he was meeting with Draco. The blond had not made an appearance in their compartment but he had snagged Harry by the loo again to make a request for a meeting. So here he was waiting in the room for his ally to make an appearance. He didn't worry when he was still not there a few minutes later. However, when twenty minutes were gone he pulled out his cloak and left the room. He began to walk toward the Slytherin dorms and he had made it down three floors when he heard a moan coming from another classroom. Harry slowly pushed the door open and looked around. He didn't see anyone except an injured Draco lying on the floor.

He stepped over to the boy and got down close to his ear, "Are you alone or are they watching?"

"I don't know, can't remember what happened." He claimed, his eyes still tightly shut.

Harry slid off the cloak and put it to the side. He helped Draco sit up and asked, "If I help can you walk to the hospital?"

"Yes, but what if someone sees us?" he asked and he struggled, with Harry's help, to his feet.

"You have to keep it a secret." Harry warned him, "But I can get us there unseen."

"Ok." He agreed.

Harry picked up the cloak and slid it over the two of them. Draco tried to be quiet and when someone was near they stopped and held as still as possible. It took more time that it should have as it seemed the halls were rather busy for being so near curfew. When they finally made it to the doors Draco paused.

"I can make it from here." He said.

Harry grinned, "I'll stay under the cloak."

"Ok." He sighed and gave a small smile before making sure no one was around and then slipping out from under it, "That is pretty cool. You'll have to tell me where you got it."

"Family secret." Harry grinned and pointed towards the door, "Better go."

"Right." He waited until Harry was hidden again before he pushed open the doors and limped in.

Harry slipped in behind him and grinned as he was attacked by the medi-witch, "Mr. Malfoy, what happened to you?"

"I don't know." He told the woman, "I was walking from my common room to the library and the next thing I know I'm waking up in an unused classroom and I hurt all over."

"Have a seat I'm calling your Head of House." She told him after waving her wand a moment, "You aren't in any life threatening danger."

"That's good to know." He gingerly sat, "Oh even my bum hurts."

"I'm going now." Harry whispered, "I don't want to be here when they strip you down."

Draco just grunted in reply. Harry made it back to the classroom he had been in and took off the cloak then made his way back to the tower. He pulled the twins aside and asked them, "You two don't beat up younger kids do you?"

"No!" they looked a little hurt and a lot shocked.

"Sorry." He said, "Just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to have to kick your bums."

"Who got hurt?" they asked.

"Malfoy." He replied.

"I wonder why?" Fred hummed, "He wasn't so bad last spring."

"Keep a secret?" Harry asked.

"Always." The agreed together.

"I'm working on him not being a junior death eater." He said, "Find out who beat him or hexed him and I'll take care of them."

"You think you can change him?" George asked concerned.

"I've been working on him for a year already." Harry grinned, "Fred said it, he wasn't as bad in the spring."

"That is impressive Harry." Fred agreed, "We'll find out who it was."

"Just remember it's a secret." Harry warned them, "No one, and I mean no one, knows. Sirius and Andromeda have an idea but that's it."

"I feel so honored." Fred teased.

"To be that high on his list." George agreed with a nod.

"We won't let you down." They agreed with all seriousness.

The two came back a few days later with the names of a couple seventh year Ravenclaws. And Draco wasn't the only one they'd been hurting. Harry had already spoken with Sirius and gotten a prank that he thought would warn them off bullying anyone for a while.

Harry finally got to meet with Draco a few days later, "How was your summer?"

"Ok, I told you I was spending time with father learning the business." Draco grinned, "I took your advice and posed it to him. Now I won't be in trouble for getting to know others. We're going to try and join your study group but I'm going to keep them away from the muggleborns so we don't have any blowups."

"Stay away from Ron too." He warned, "At least until he gets used to you. He's fine with Milly, even sits with her talking about the cannons on occasion."

"That is the most unlikely friendship I can ever imagine." Draco snickered.

"He said she's the only one he can really look up to." Harry laughed, "She's only three inches taller."

"When is the next study session?" he asked.

"Monday between classes and dinner." He replied.

"One more thing." Draco looked confused, "Father told me to not to walk the halls after dark this year. I don't know if he knows something or what."

"Something is going on." Harry confirmed, "I was warned not to return to Hogwarts because bad things were going to happen and the person didn't want me to get hurt. I've informed Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey. Amelia Bones also knows."

"Are you going to tell anyone else?" he asked.

"I can't." Harry frowned, "They don't want anyone to know they are watching."

"You told me." Draco grinned.

"You already knew." He fired back, "Neville knows too. He was with me when I received the warning. On a lighter note watch out for weird things tomorrow. I've found out who hexed you and they're going to be pranked."

"Thanks Harry." He said before he left.

The next day Harry's prank on the bullies started. Whenever they got close to someone they had bullied the person would look like an inferi and the duo would hear their voices saying, "You did this to me. You killed me. I'm going to get you." and a variety of other things and noises to make them scary. It was a combination of curses that the twins had helped him place on them. Harry was near the first time they saw one of the inferi/people. They both screamed like little girls and gained the attention of everyone around.

Professor Flitwick finally came out of the Great Hall to ask, "What is that commotion?"

"There can't you see it." One pointed to Draco.

"That's Draco Malfoy." Flitwick looked at them like they were losing their minds.

"But… but... but… he's dead, an Inferi." One of them spat out.

"Mr. Malfoy looks fine to me." The tiny professor looked at the second year who was looking very confused.

"I'm fine." He stated.

"Don't make him talk." The other yelled, "I don't want to hear that noise again."

Flitwick waved his wand at the two of them and sighed, "You've been cursed. You're just seeing what the curse wants you to see."

"And hear." They both said, "Take it off."

After a few spells he stopped, "I can't."

"What?" they yelled together.

"It seems that whoever cursed you left a conditional release." He stated, "Which is very advanced. It basically means you need to meet some preset condition and then it will release you."

"What condition?" the first one asked.

"It should tell you at some point." He answered them.


	14. Chapter 14

It took a week during which Malfoy and all others who had been hurt by them made sure they found the duo often. In truth the group plagued them, the duo were followed by inferi all times of the day and night. Even in their common room. They finally broke down in the Great Hall and approached Flitwick, they told him why they were seeing so many inferi. They were both given detention. Flitwick asked that the person or persons who did the spell to step forward to receive points for their house. No one stepped forward but a red envelope floated down from the ceiling.

"Attention Hogwarts students." It started, the voice was odd and there was no way anyone could tell who it was talking, "The prank you have witnessed on these two bullies will be repeated as necessary. Any malicious pranks will be dealt a similar consequence. Harmless fun is one thing, accidents can be forgiven but these instances of students ending up in the hospital will desist. You have been warned. I did not do this retaliation and I applaud the effort but I will be the one to deal out further retribution. Thank you for your kind attention. Farewell from the Protector."

Harry waited until they were back in the common room before he pulled the twins aside, "That howler thing was inspired, how did you do it?"

"We thought you did it." They responded.

After that first week the next several were rather quiet, and in the case of Defense Against the Dark arts boring. Harry had known from the moment he laid eyes on Lockhart that the man was useless. The man had proved it on his first day in class. The test over the so called defense books was nothing more than a personality test about him. Harry was shocked when Hermione joined the rest of the girls mooning over the ridiculous and idiotic moron. He lasted all of two weeks before he exploded, in whispers, on the group in the library.

"Would you all stop." He hissed when the giggling girls interrupted his study time.

"Harry, are you jealous?" Lavender batted her eyes at him, "Do you wish we were all giggling over you?"

"Not in the least." He replied, "I just hate watching you all make fools of yourselves."

"What?" she hissed in reply and all the girls looked at him in shock.

"I'll tell you to do what I did." Harry said, "Go through one book and make note of how many actual defense spells were used and used correctly. I mean you have to find the same spell in another book and make sure it does what he says he used it for."

"Why?" she asked.

Hermione was the one who answered, "Because you can't just believe what you read in the wizarding world. They have no laws that say you have to print the truth. I can't believe I forgot that already."

"You were trained to believe books." He nudged her, "During the summer you don't necessarily need to, though it's a good idea even with muggle books."

"How many good spells did you find?" Ron asked.

"I read Year With the Yeti." Harry told him, "I found two spells in the book that he used correctly, lumenos and accio."

"You must be mistaken." Lavender huffed.

"Like I said do what I did on any of his books." Harry told her with no malice, "Read it and make notes. And if you can read the same book and find more spells used correctly I will publically apologize to you standing on a table in the Great Hall."

Three weeks later Lavender admitted defeat, "I only found two. The rest he used wrong or there is nowhere else that even mentions the spell."

"Did you try to do them on your own?" he asked.

"I couldn't get anything to happen." She admitted and several others nodded with her.

"Did you ask him to demonstrate?" Harry grinned when they said no, "I tried to ask him to do the banishing spell in Yeti after class one day. He said he couldn't do it here because the spell might go astray and hurt someone. Made me wonder how bad his aim was that something could go that badly astray."

"We admit it." Padma sighed, "He's an idiotic moron. Thank you Harry."

"For what?" Dean asked, "He just embarrassed you."

"No he stopped us from embarrassing ourselves." She replied, "There are still plenty of others still mooning over him. It just shows how many people will believe anything."

"I think he uses his looks to distract people from his inability to do anything remotely useful." Harry shrugged, "I really feel sorry for the fifth and seventh years."

"Why did Dumbledore even hire him?" Lavender hissed.

"Forgotten details." Hermione sighed, "We noticed it a lot last year."

The next few weeks were quiet but on Halloween night they all got a scare when Filch's cat was petrified and hug on a sconce near a bathroom. The red paint on the wall told them that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. That evening Luna approached Harry with Ginny in tow, the rest of Harry's group was not around.

"Show him your book." She urged.

Ginny had her hands behind her back and wasn't budging. Harry prodded her, "Ginny?"

"It's from my parents there isn't anything wrong with it." She huffed.

"If there isn't anything wrong then let me see." Harry suggested.

Ginny pulled the book out and handed it over, "It's just a diary."

"Luna?" Harry asked as he looked the book over with a confused expression, "Why did you have her bring it to me?"

"Every time she writes in it her head fills with nargles." Luna explained, "Tonight it was so bad that she forgot to meet me for the feast."

Harry opened it finally and looked inside. When he saw the name written on the inside cover he snapped it closed, "Did it do anything?"

"When I write in it I get a reply from Tom." She explained, "It's just cleverly charmed."

"Can you show me?" he asked handing his quill over.

"Sure." She opened the book and began to write, "Hi Tom, the feast is over and I'm back in Gryffindor."

"Hi Ginny, how did your potions class go today?" he replied.

Ginny continued to write to Tom and Luna looked over at Harry, "See when she writes it just fills her mind and she doesn't hear anything else."

"Keep her here, I need to get Sirius." Harry ran up to his dorm and grabbed his mirror and stated, "Sirius."

"Hey pup, how's your holiday?" he asked with a very fake grin.

"Terrible, someone has opened the chamber of secrets and I think its Ginny." He said quickly, "She has an enchanted diary and it looks like it takes over her mind."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Inside the cover it says property of Tom Marvolo Riddle." He said, "I think it's like my scar, can it do that?"

"Probably, I'll get Andy and be right over." Harry could tell he was moving.

"It's going to be hard to get it away from her." Harry explained, "It may even hurt her to do it."

"That's why I'm bringing Andy." He stated, "I'll be there shortly, meet us in Minnie's office."

"I'll do my best but she's not going to be eager to go." Harry said before putting the mirror away.

Ginny was still writing in the diary beside Luna and hadn't even realized he was gone. Harry took a deep breath before explaining to Luna. It took them several tries to get her away from the book but she finally looked up.

"What?" she asked looking dazed.

"Sirius is coming and I'm going to go see him, why don't you come with us." He tried.

"No I'll just stay here." She started to go back to writing.

"No!" Harry stopped her before she began to write, "It's a surprise I'm not supposed to tell you but Sirius has something for you."

"Oh." She hesitated, "Why would he get me something?"

"It's your late birthday present. It didn't come in on time." Harry started to get exasperated, "Come on."

"Fine." She gave up and put the diary in her backpack, "Are you coming Luna?"

"Yes." She answered calmly.

When they reached the office Sirius and Andy were waiting along with Minerva. Ginny entered between Luna and Harry and smiled a greeting, "Hi Sirius."

"Hi Ginny, Luna you're looking well this evening." He turned his attention to her.

"Thank you." She smiled, "You are looking well yourself."

While the two of them were preoccupied with Sirius, Harry slipped his hand into Ginny's backpack and pulled out the diary. He wasn't quite soft enough because Ginny turned on him, "That's mine."

"I know, I just wanted to show Sirius because it's such a neat piece of magic." Harry tried.

"No you want to take it from me." She grabbed it back and tried to push away from him and head for the door.

A quick spell from Andy stopped her, "Definitely dark magic."

"It has completely changed her personality." Harry picked up the diary and handed it to Andy, "Will she recover?"

Andy waved her wand over the girl for several minutes, "She will but it has quite a hold on her. I'm going to take the book away and we'll see if she gets any better. Take her to Poppy and make sure she gets a dreamless sleep potion, I'll check in on her first thing tomorrow."

"Be careful with that thing." Harry warned, "She writes in it and her ink disappears and then he replies and it disappears again. That's how it pulled her in."

The small procession headed to the hospital wing and gathered around the small girl's bed. She looked so small and innocent as she slept. Harry hoped she would be alright.

"Minerva, what is the chamber of secrets?" Remus asked, the walk to the hospital had brought them by the words on the wall.

"Salazar Slytherin's secret chamber." She sighed, "It was said he kept a monster that would cleanse the school."

"Of what?" Harry asked.

"Muggleborns." Luna offered, "He didn't want them at the school. Helena said he wanted them to have a separate school and keep them away from the pure magical people. He was fine with them having their own society but he wanted it separate from his."

"Who is Helena?" Sirius didn't know anyone by that name.

"Ravenclaw's house ghost." Minerva explained, "She was Rowena Ravenclaws daughter."

"Does she know what the monster is?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, I never asked." Luna shrugged.

"Whatever he had is probably long gone." Sirius dismissed the idea.

Harry nodded then asked, "What did Madam Bones say?"

"About what?" Minerva asked.

"The crime scene." Harry offered.

"Albus is… never mind, I'll call her." She stood and moved away to the floo.

"I guess that means he was going to investigate it." Harry answered Sirius and Remus' looks of confusion, "The only reason the Aurors looked into that troll last year was because I asked her to call. Dumbledore always wants to handle things himself and then does nothing."

"I wonder." Luna tilted her head as she looked at Harry.

"What do you wonder?" He asked.

"Why he doesn't investigate." She stated.

"I think it was his plan for these things to happen." Harry offered, "Therefore he doesn't need to investigate since he already knows the cause."

"Oh, the evil master plan Fred and George are always talking about." She nodded, "I see."

"The evil master plan?" Remus asked amused.

"We were trying to decide last year if he was a doddering old fool or if he had an evil master plan." Harry grinned, "The twins voted for the evil master plan."

"I do to." Sirius grinned and winked at Harry

"I'll go along with a plan." Remus laughed as his friend, "But I don't think he's evil, he's just missing the details."

"So you vote doddering old fool with a plan." Harry chuckled.

"You two need to get back to your dorm." Poppy arrived with a clipboard in her hands, "Off you go."

Harry and Luna headed toward Gryffindor tower. Half way there they passed the note on the wall again. Harry was thoughtful as they began to climb the stairs.

"Do you know where I could find Helena?" Harry asked seemingly out of the blue.

"Yes." She looked at her watch, "We have some time left."

"Let's go." He urged.

She led him up the stairs and down some hallways before they found the ghost lingering near the bottom of Ravenclaw tower.

"Hi Helena." Luna called, "I want to introduce you to my friend Harry."

"I've heard much about you." Helena didn't smile but the words sounded kind.

"Hello." He wasn't sure how to start a conversation with her. With Sir Nicholas it had been much easier.

"He has some questions if you have some time." Luna broke the ice.

"What do you wish to know?" she asked in a bored tone.

"Do you happen to know what monster Slytherin left in his chamber?" he asked.

"Yes, it's a basilisk." She offered easily, "It's still there."

"Oh." Harry blinked, "I've not had the chance to study magical creatures yet is it dangerous?"

"Very, I wouldn't suggest you try to find it." She offered.

Harry thought for a moment before asking, "Has the chamber been opened before? I mean since Slytherin left the school has someone else opened it like now?"

"Yes." She nodded, "We received another ghost into the school when it was opened."

"Someone died?" Harry asked in shock, "Which ghost?"

"Myrtle." She told him.

"She haunts the girl's bathroom on the second floor." Luna explained, "It's not far from the note on the wall. I'll bet the opening is in that bathroom."

"It is."Helana agreed, "I'd still suggest you to stay away."

"We will." Harry agreed, "Do you know who opened the chamber last time? We think Tom Riddle is responsible this time. He used a cursed object to get someone else to do it for him."

"That name is familiar." She nodded, "He opened it last time and blamed it on your Rubeus Hagrid."

"That's terrible." Harry and Luna agreed.

"He has done many bad things." She scowled.

"What did he do to you?" Harry asked concerned, "Is it something we can fix?"

"He desecrated my mother's diadem." She frowned, "He ruined it."

"Did he make it a soul container?" Harry asked and the ghost actually showed shock, "He made a few others too. My guardian's cousin is helping us destroy them all. She's an expert in defense against the dark arts."

"He did." She whispered, "Can you destroy it?"

"Andromeda can." He promised, "Can you tell me where to find it?"

"It's in the room that is hidden." She told him.

"Where is that?" he asked.

"That I am forbidden to tell." She floated away, "It is a secret only those who truly love Hogwarts can find."

"Thank you for your help." Harry called after her, "Yours too Luna."

"You're welcome Harry." She said and the two of them returned to Gryffindor tower.

As soon as they entered they found that McGonagall had already told Ginny's brothers. They were all sitting on the couch looking a bit shell shocked. Harry pulled Hermione to the side into a whispered conversation.

"Does Hogwarts a History mention a hidden room?" he asked.

"Harry didn't you hear what happened to Ginny?" she asked, "We need to be concentrating on…"

"I know I was there." Harry interrupted, "This is just as important, does it talk about one?"

"Yes it's called the Room of Requirement or the Come and Go room." She huffed, "It doesn't say where it can be found or anything like that. How can this be just as important as Ginny?"

"You remember the stuff that happened last Christmas that I can't talk about?" He asked and she nodded remembering, "Ginny was affected by something just like it. There is another in that room. I'm hoping to get it before anyone else gets hurt by one of these things."

"Oh." She looked wide eyed.

"Right." He sighed, "I need to talk to McGonagall about another matter, how much time do I have until curfew?"

"Two minutes." She shook her head, "Can it wait until tomorrow?"

"It's waited a thousand years I think it can wait a few more hours." Harry shrugged.

"You shouldn't exaggerate." Hermione huffed and went back to sit by Ron.

Harry rolled his eyes then joined his group by the fire. Ron looked up "Harry did you hear?"

"Ginny's in the hospital." He nodded.

"They aren't sure what happened." Ron told him, "She collapsed Pomfrey is keeping her overnight."

"They're sure she's going to recover." Harry offered when everyone looked at him he said, "Luna and I were with her."

"What happened?" they asked the two of them.

"She touched something she shouldn't have." Luna offered.

"What?" Ron turned to Harry.

"It was a dark object but none of us knew it." Harry offered, "Like I said she will recover. We called Sirius' cousin Andy for help she's a specialist in curing dark arts."

The four Weasleys on the couch nodded. Percy was the first to stand and leave the group; he said he needed to do homework. After he left the rest of the group actually relaxed some.

"They said we can visit Ginny tomorrow." Ron sighed.

"They gave her dreamless sleep." Harry explained.

"McGonagall said you should have been back before she arrived." George leaned forward, "What happened?"

"We had to make a stop." He replied.

"We went to talk to Helena." Luna said at the same time.

"Who is Helena?" Hermione asked.

"She's the Ravenclaw ghost." Harry explained, "It had to do with the object Ginny touched so I don't want to discuss it here in the open."

"How about our dorm?" the twins asked, "Lee will leave for a while if we ask."

"Ok." Harry agreed and they all stood and left. It took almost an hour to explain as much as he could to the rest of the group. He didn't explain about the horcruxes he just told them it was dark magic, "She said there was another dark object like it in the room that is hidden. So now we need to find that room before anyone else does."

"We'll start looking tomorrow." Neville had been quite the whole night.

"Thanks." Harry put a hand on his shoulder, "I just don't want to see anyone else get hurt. I feel so bad that Ginny got hurt and I hadn't noticed."

"None of us did." Fred nodded, "We start tomorrow, after we visit Ginny."


	15. Chapter 15

Ginny was still asleep when they tried to visit in the morning so they headed out to search the school. Fred and George took off together. Harry then paired up with Neville and Luna leaving Ron and Hermione to search as a third team. They looked until noon then went to lunch and then back to the hospital to try and visit Ginny again. This time they were in luck and she was awake.

"How are you?" Fred jumped on the bed and pulled her into a hug.

The others gathered around her bed with Harry and Luna at the back. Ginny's smiled when they joined her, it made her feel some better having them there, "I'm fine."

"How long until you're free?" George got the second hug.

"I don't know." She shrugged, "They want to do some more tests. Where are Luna and Harry?"

"Back here hiding." Neville pointed on either side, "Not sure if you're still mad at them or not."

"Definitely not." She nodded, "Shove them forward Neville."

The two moved forward together and she nearly jumped off the bed to hug them both, "Thank you. Thank You. A million times thank you."

"Back to normal then?" Harry asked with a grin now plastered on his face.

"Mostly." She finally let go and sat back, "Andromeda told me this morning that if you hadn't stopped it eventually it would have drained my life force. I would have died."

"We can't have that." Luna grabbed her hand, "It would have ended badly for all of us."

"I doubt that." She shrugged, "Where were you guys this morning?"

"We're looking for a secret room." Luna informed her, "Harry needs our help finding it."

"I'll help when they let me loose." Ginny offered.

Minerva entered the hospital with Molly following behind her. They approached the group and Minerva spoke first, "Ginny it's good to see you awake."

Molly began fussing over her right away and the others stepped back to make room for her so she didn't fuss over them too. Harry was able to pull Minerva away from the crowd.

"Professor, Luna and I talked to Helena last night." He whispered, "She says Slytherins monster is a basilisk and that its still there."

"A basilisk?" she whispered harshly, "Are you sure?"

"Positive." He nodded, "And I know where the entrance is but not how to open it."

"How did you…" she stopped, "Stay here I'm going to get Amelia."

His promise to stay was tested a moment later when he heard his and Luna's names mentioned. Molly latched on to Luna thanking her for her part in saving Ginny and Harry was sorely tempted to sneak out. Molly did catch him and he was only released when Amelia arrived a few moments later.

The two of them stepped away from the group and spoke in whispers, "Minerva said you have something important to tell me."

"You know about the chamber being opened?" Harry asked and she nodded, "I was curious so I went and talked to Helena Ravenclaw, the Ravenclaw house ghost. She said that the chamber monster is a basilisk and that its still there."

Amelia gasped but then nodded, "They can live for thousands of years."

"We also asked if the chamber had been opened before." He explained, "She said that Tom Riddle opened it years ago and the school got a new ghost when he did. Moaning Myrtle. Then he blamed Hagrid for opening it."

"Really." She was thoughtful.

"Luna made the connection and said that Myrtle's bathroom must hold the entrance and Helena said it did but that we should stay away." He finished.

"As you should." Amelia agreed.

"And that is why I'm telling you." He shrugged.

"I hope you are going to consider becoming an auror when you graduate." Amelia sighed, "You would be a great addition to my force."

"I hadn't thought about a career yet." He grinned, "I'm sure Sirius will help me decide next summer."

"Now we just need to find how to get in." Amelia stood, "I have a meeting with Andromeda shortly but I think I have time to talk to Myrtle first."

"Good luck." Harry called as she left with Minerva in tow.

The rest of the group left Ginny in her mother's care and headed out to search for the hidden room again. They had no luck that weekend nor did they in the weeks that followed. They did get some good news though. Andromeda had met with Amelia and they were in agreement that putting Voldemorts items in a vat of basilisk venom would certainly end them for good.

The biggest obstacle they faced was killing the basilisk behind Dumbledore's back. With that in mind they made the decision to wait to go after the snake until the Christmas Holidays. Besides Dumbledore being gone to his ICW meetings most of the children would be at home too. Andromeda clearly sided with Harry when she didn't want Albus to know about the soul containers. Amelia agreed with them that no one else needed know what they were destroying.

Over those weeks between Halloween and Christmas several more bullies had been identified by the Protector. He used different pranks each time but every one of them had one thing in common. The bullies were pranked until they told on themselves. Although one particularly stubborn Slytherin had held out for two weeks before he had finally gone to his head of house. But that hadn't stopped his torment. Dumbledore had finally made an announcement.

"Attention." He called, "I don't know who the protector is but they need to stop the prank on Mr. Flint. He has told his head of house and the issue has been resolved."

A red envelope floated down from the ceiling and stated, "Now Alby you know that is not true. Sure he went to Professor Snape and admitted to his crimes. The problem is he hasn't stopped committing those crimes nor has Professor Snape set any punishment. The little prank I play is in no way a punishment. It's an encouragement to do the right thing. Once they are punished and they stop the encouragement will cease."

"I set him punishment." Snape assured the Headmaster.

The red envelope turned to the professor, "Fifteen lines saying I won't torture mudbloods is not a fitting punishment for any crime. I'm sorry to you Muggleborns for saying that word I'm repeating exactly what he wrote. "

McGonagall turned to the other professor, "Really Severus! If that is what you had him write…"

"I told him to write muggleborns." Snape huffed.

"But you didn't correct him or make him even rewrite them." The envelope pointed out.

"I think we should move this to my office." Dumbledore suggested.

"Don't gloss over this." The red envelope warned, "I won't stop until he does. And if he gets worse so do I."

That night Harry picked up his Game book and read through the achievements. He had reached two hundred achievements and only had fourteen failures. As he was leafing through the book to check the others he knew of he found three more names had been added at the end and the names looked a little odd. O'Connely, O'Dell and O'Leary were all at the back and Harry thought it odd. He looked the book over for a bit before he caught a small difference in the opening paragraph of the stats section.

A note after the congratulatory paragraph read:_ You have gained enough goals to extend your geographical area. The next closest area has been added. In this case it is Ireland. _Harry turned back to the three names and grinned. It made sense all three of those were Irish names though he thought the whole island would have more than three game players.

Harry placed the book back into his trunk just in time for Neville to throw the door open, "I've found it!"

"The room?" Harry sat up excitedly.

"I think so." He grinned, "You want to see?"

"Where are the rest?" Harry jumped up and slipped his shoes on.

"Fred and George are in detention. Luna and Ginny roped Ron and Hermione into helping them with homework in the library." He explained, "I was walking around alone and almost ran across a group of older Slytherins. I was trying to get out of the corridor by leaving out the other end. However a second group was coming that way so I was stuck in the middle. After turning back and forth a few times I heard something behind me and turned to find a door forming out of the wall."

"Sounds like a hidden room to me." Harry was following him through the common room and down the hall as they spoke in whispers.

"I ducked into the room and found a huge pile of junk. I thought if something was hidden that would be the room to be in." Neville grinned, "I gave the two groups some time to leave then I slipped out and came to get you."

They stopped on the seventh floor near a painting of a man with trolls dressed in tutus. Harry stared at the painting a moment and remembered walking by it numerous times in the last couple of years. The corridor was out of the way of normal traffic, no classrooms were close. It was an excellent place to hide a hidden room.

"I was about here when I heard Flint talking so I decided to go down this way." Neville explained and moved down the hall, "Then I heard Malfoy talking down there. That turned me back." He demonstrated, "But on second thought Flint is worse than Malfoy so I turned again and tada."

Sure enough a door was etching itself into the wall, "This is amazing."

"I know." Neville grinned, "It came in quicker for me, probably because I needed to get out of the hall quicker."

"Let's take a look." Harry grinned back at his friend and reached for the door. Once inside he stopped and looked around in awe. It took several minutes before he spoke, "We're going to need the others."

"Told you it was huge." Neville laughed, "Now we just need to figure a way to map out the room so we don't look at the same place over and over."

"Brooms." Harry muttered.

"What?" Neville couldn't quite hear him.

"I said brooms." Harry repeated, "We need to get up on brooms to map out the room."

"Holidays start tomorrow." He pointed out.

"I doubt the room is going anywhere." Harry grinned and the two turned and left the room.

Neville rolled his eyes and accompanied Harry back to the tower. Later that evening when the rest of his group had returned Harry had him explain how he found the room. Those that flew grabbed their brooms and Harry wrapped them up in his cloak before they all followed Neville down the hall. Fred had his wand out levitating the invisible bundle and George grabbed it discreetly and pulled it along.

"I've seen this picture hundreds of times." Ron complained, "There isn't anything in this hall."

Neville grinned and paced the hall and the door popped up in the wall, "You were saying?"

"Sorry I doubted you." He said in awe as the doors opened.

They entered the room and Harry began to unwrap the bundle. Neville and Hermione climbed onto Fred and George's brooms while Luna climbed on Ron's. Ginny jumped on Harry's and they all lifted off the ground and hovered about fifteen feet off the ground.

"Even larger piles in the back." Harry pointed out. They all began to move forward before Harry stopped them and shot a spell above the door. It left a bright green splash on the wall, "So we can find our way out."

"Good idea." Fred agreed.

As they flew away from the door Harry observed that the items began to take on a look of another era. Evidentially Hermione agreed when him when she pointed out, "This stuff back here looks to be several centuries old. I bet we need to stay to the front half or would that be third?"

Harry pulled his wand and made a green line from one side of the room to the other. He left the line on the tops and sides of the piles and on the floor where he could see it, "When we get back from the holiday we make a map between this line and the door. Then we can search the piles and mark them off the map. If it isn't in this section I'll go back about as far and draw another section."

"This could take years." George pointed out.

"Or we could find it in the first five minutes." Luna offered, "No need to be pessimistic."

"Let's search by the door today." Ginny suggested, "I know it's doubtful that he just opened the door and threw it in but he told me that he's the only person who knows all the secrets to Hogwarts. He could think no one else found this place."

"How could he think he was the only one?" Ron asked indicating all the junk.

"From the door you'd never guess it was this large." Harry pointed out, "We'll look there it's all we have time for anyway."

"Mister Harry Potter sir." Dobby was waiting when they landed.

"Hey Dobby." He greeted the small elf, "How are you?"

"Dobby is fine." He replied, "I just wanted to be checking on yous before Christmas. Yous needs to be safe."

"The book is in the hands of a dark arts specialist." Harry told him, "They think they can destroy it soon."

The little elf sagged with relief, "Dobby is so glad yous being safe."

"Thank you for the warning." Harry pulled the elf into a hug.

Tears were streaming down the little elves face when he replied, "Yous a very great wizard."

"Do the Malfoys have other elves?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Theys having many elves." Dobby nodded.

"I wonder if they'd be willing to… sell you? Or whatever to get you away from them." Harry wondered aloud.

"Elves can be sold." Dobby nodded, "But theys never be selling Dobby. Theys liking to punish him toos much. Dobby has to go now."

"Stop by when you can visit and I will work on getting you out." Harry urged him.

"Yous a great wizard." He said before popping away.

"What was that?" Hermione demanded.

"A house elf." Harry replied, "They're servants for wizards."

"You mean slaves." She cried.

"Calm down Hermione." Harry ordered, "Most of them like the life they have. Not many are treated like Dobby."

"How do you know?" she demanded again.

"They told me when I talked to them." He replied, "They love helping wizard kind."

"Only because they don't know what its like to be free." She began to rant.

The group had to listen to her the whole time they were looking through the piles by the door. After an hour the group gave up and left. Harry grumbled all the way back to the tower. He had been the one to call off the search because he was already sick of Hermione harping about house elves. A subject she obviously knew nothing about. Harry was glad for the holidays to arrive so timely. The first thing he discussed with Sirius was Dobby.

"I want to get Dobby from the Malfoys." He stated during dinner the first night home.

"What?" Sirius stopped eating and looked up in confusion.

"The house elf that came to warn me about the danger at Hogwarts." Harry reminded him, "I want to get him away from the Malfoys."

"But we've got a house elf." Sirius stated.

"We do?" Harry looked around, "When did you get one?"

"Inherited one." Sirius grumbled, "You remember Kreacher at my mum's place, he's here now."

"I don't think I saw him." Harry stated, "Can I meet him?"

"Kreacher." Siriur yelled.

"What does Mistresses bad son want with a good elf like Kreacher." The grubby elf grumbled, "Making Kreacher serve nasty monsters and halfbloods."

"Hello." Harry greeted him.

"The halfblood speaks, Kreacher will ignore him." The elf mumbled, "What would Mistress say? What would poor Master Regulas say?"

"Who is Regulas?" Harry asked.

"My little brother." Sirius answered.

"Mistresses good son." Kreacher answered at the same time, "Poor Master Regulas."

"What happened to him?" Harry asked trying to sound comforting.

"Dead." Kreacher wailed, "Dead at the hands of the nasty inferi."

"Where did he run across those?" Harry continued the questioning.

Sirius was afraid to interrupt. He thought the elf would quit talking if he did. Harry pulled the story of a locket in a cave out of the elf. Sirius was crying when he finished the story. His brother had turned to the light in the end. Huge tears ran down the cheeks of both Harry and the elf.

"Can you bring me the locket?" Harry asked.

"Can you destroy it?" Kreacher looked hopeful.

"I can't but I know who can." Harry patted the crying elf, "Sirius will you call Andromeda?"

"Andromeda Black?" Kreacher asked. When Harry nodded the elf popped away and came back with the locket and handed it to Harry.

Sirius went to the fireplace and called for his favorite cousin. When he returned he had a slightly worried look on his face, "Ted says she off with Amelia at the school doing something."

"Oh, right." Harry handed the locket to him, "They're killing the basilisk and going to drain its venom to kill these things."

"The what!" Sirius and Remus yelled together making Harry jump.

"Slytherin's monster is a basilisk, did they tell you?" he asked.

"No." Sirius was in awe, "Why did they tell you and not me?"

"They didn't tell me, I told them." Harry explained.

"Well, why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"I thought one of them would tell you." He shrugged.

"How did you figure it out and are you sure of yourself?" Remus asked trying to get the conversation back under control.

"After Ginny was hurt when Luna and I were returning to the common room we had some time before curfew so she introduced me to Helena." Harry explained, "We asked her about the monster and she told us it was a basilisk and that it was still there. I told Madam Bones the next day and she wrote me later saying that Andromeda agrees that basilisk venom will kill the soul containers. So they've gone to kill it and harvest the venom."

"First they have to find the chamber." Remus tried to correct him, "It's not been found in hundreds of years possibly not since Slytherin left the school."

"Actually it was opened about fifty years ago." Harry grinned, "Voldemort opened it and kill Myrtle and then blamed it on Hagrid."

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"Helena told us." Harry was getting exasperated, "Then Luna told me that the ghost in the girl's bathroom is Myrtle and she guessed that was where the entrance was. Helena said she was right and told us to stay away. We agreed but told Madam Bones so she can get someone to deal with it."

"How do you do it?" Sirius asked.

"What?" Harry didn't understand.

"I think he means what made you question Helena and ask those questions?" Remus explained.

"It seemed like the obvious thing to do." Harry shrugged.

"That was more than a month ago." Sirius observed, "I wonder why they didn't go after it before?"

"They don't want to tell Dumbledore about it." Harry explained, "They also want the fewest number of students in the school. They didn't feel like they could wait until spring so Christmas break was the next best time."

"I feel so left out." Sirius huffed.

"Don't feel too bad Padfoot." Remus grinned, "If he wasn't so good at getting people to do the right thing you'd still be in Azkaban."


End file.
